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Bird Study - Resources & Ideas


MelanieM
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A friend and I were chatting today about doing a bird study with our kids. I have some resources here but would love to hear about great books, web sites, projects, etc. that others can recommend.

 

My current list:

 

Field Guides:

The Backyard Birdsong Guide

Backyard Birds Introduction (Robert Bateman)

Peterson Young Birders Guide

 

Fiction:

The Burgess Bird Book for Children

The Birdwatchers

 

Web Sites:

Great Backyard Bird Count

Cornell Lab of Ornithology and their sub-sites: All About Birds, Birding Basics, Educator's Guide to Bird Study

Backyard Birds Lapbook

Bird Colouring Book from 50 Birds

Bird Colouring Book from Cornell

 

Does anyone have other bird study favourites to share? Any projects you've done that the kids really enjoyed? TIA!

Edited by MelanieM
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Here's a page with a bunch of other links:

 

http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/schoolroom/birds.php

 

Here's a unit study. It's not the one I was looking for, which is sold by Rainbow Resource, but it does look good:

 

http://www.homeschoolfcgs.com/product_info.php/products_id/388

 

I can't think of the author's name on the one I wanted, but she also has out a unit study on plants.....

 

.....Oh, here it is! I did find it and it's in a new edition, so should be better:

 

http://learn-and-do.com/bird.htm

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Fiction:

Wheel on the School

Owls in the Family by Farley Mowat

 

I see that Rainbow Resource sells a guide for Owls in the Family, but haven't used it.

 

We sometimes submit bird observations to eBird. You set up an account, so later you can see what you've submitted altogether. When the kids were younger, we maintained a bird log...just a simple table set up to record date, location, and type of bird we saw.

 

HTH!

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We really enjoyed the bird kit from Sam's science club. There were some neat experiments like using different items like spoons to make beaks and trying to pick up things like bird seed and worms (spaghetti) to understand why different birds have different beaks. Ds also enjoyed disecting the owl pellet. I would also recommend the book or even the movie, HOOT. The whole family enjoyed the movie and ds and I loved the book.

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I just got my weekly CurrClick emaiil. Their bird nature study notebooking pages are the free download right now. The site seems to be down right now, though.

 

HTH,

Patty

 

I just downloaded a copy of the notebooking pages from CurrClick, and they look very nice. They are quite flexible for all sorts of bird study pages for upper and lower grammar stage students. Very nice indeed, and they are free!!

 

Blessings,

Lucinda

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David Attenborough has a documentary called Life of Birds. You can get it on Netflix.

 

Also, I listened to a fabulous radio show on NPR with Donald Kroodsma. I purchased the book, which has a cd of bird songs on it. I love it.

 

Here is a link to his interview, as well as others.

 

http://www.thesinginglifeofbirds.com/features.phtml

 

Here is the link to the book/cd. It is only $11 on Amazon. Great deal!

 

http://www.amazon.com/Singing-Life-Birds-Listening-Birdsong/dp/0618840761/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268091012&sr=8-1

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I just got my weekly CurrClick emaiil. Their bird nature study notebooking pages are the free download right now. The site seems to be down right now, though.

 

HTH,

Patty

 

I got this too. I was able to get on and download it. Very nice notebooking pages.

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The owner of our local wild bird store has written and is writing books for each state on backyard birds. He tells how to identify them and how to attract them to your yard. Plus he is really a great guy. People call from all over the states describing a bird to him and he identifies either by description or sound. The book isn't very pricey and if he has your state done you should check it out. Here is a link to our state's book.

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Sorry, I haven't read the other posts, but here are some things we have used and liked for our bird unit study, years ago:

 

Everything You Never Learned About Birds by Rebecca Rupp (written by a homeschooling mom)

 

The Birding Game

 

Dover Bird Coloring books

 

Draw 50 Birds

 

and finally, for a really complete bird study, check out the Cornell Home Study Ornithology course. Dd did this in 7th-8th grade and got a lot out of it.

 

Have fun!

GardenMom

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Melanie, I seem to be synching up with all your interests. I've been wanting to do a bird study for years, but just started last week. I did not even see your thread at the time, I promise!

 

Great ideas everyone!

 

I made a Burgess Bird Book Companion document, it took me a long time to work on, so hopefully people can benefits from my time somehow:

http://satorismiles.com/2010/03/08/burgess-bird-book-companion/

 

And because last week I felt the need to get my random thoughts down, I made up a first draft page of links to start our nature study:

http://satorismiles.com/curriculum/nature-study/

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I just got my weekly CurrClick emaiil. Their bird nature study notebooking pages are the free download right now. The site seems to be down right now, though.

 

HTH,

Patty

 

 

Thanks for the heads-up! I just downloaded my free copy, and it looks great!

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Those are very good! I would also recommend the Exploring Creation with Zoology 1-- flying creatures of the fifth day-- It is part of the young explorers series

 

 

Ornithology, chiropterology, entomology and a little bit of paleontology comprises this book! This year, your students will learn about the bats, bugs, birds and some extinct flying reptiles called pterosaurs. Included in every lesson is a great narrative on the most fascinating facts in the animal biology concerning the creatures of flight. With fun activities, projects and assignments to go along with every lesson, your students will pronounce that science is their favorite subject.

 

That is the summary from the authors website. My kids LOVED it!!!!!

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Patty, thanks for the heads up about the free sheets at Currclick! I downloaded them this morning. :D

 

Angela, your guide for the Burgess Bird Book looks awesome! That will most certainly save me time, thank you!

 

I love the other links and resources as well -- thank you all so much! Very helpful. :D

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We just read The Boy Who Drew Birds and really enjoyed it! The illustrations gave me some great ideas for doing a bird study wall, and I liked the added benefit of a little French sprinkled throughout. :) Thanks for the suggestion, Heidi!

 

Lisa, thanks for sharing the thread to the bird cakes. We're going to make some this weekend and hang them under our patio. There's a window right there so we can watch any friends that come visit to partake of the goodies! :D (I'm hoping that will enable us to keep the goodies from the squirrels!)

 

Would anyone care to share details of their bird study journals? I'm trying to figure out how I want to track things. (Angela, I looked at yours on your blog... I love Satori's drawings!)

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