Class Schedule
Wednesdays
1. Gifted and Able Learners Class for 1st - 3rd graders
8:45 - 11:00 a.m
(Students should bring a nutritious snack.)

2. Gifted and Able Learners Class for 4th - 5th graders
11:25 a.m. - 1:40 p.m.
(Students need to bring a bag lunch to school. We eat in our classroom.)

 

January

 

12 PowerPoint: Pre-test.

Brainstorm/cluster all things/ideas related to birds and flight. Art Lesson - Drawing Birds.

 

19 PowerPoint - "Introduction to Birding"

Students learned 6 clues that ornithologists ("bird detectives") use.
Students met an an American kestrel (small falcon) and practiced using these clues to learn about her.
Students learned how to use binoculars then used the binoculars on a birding walk on campus.

26 What makes a bird a bird?

Students brainstormed and discussed the distinguishable characteristics all birds share. They all have feathers and beaks, are endothermic (meaning warm-blooded) animals and lay eggs.

Students saw the EyeWitness movie, "Birds," then "invented" a new bird that had all the necessary avian characteristics and described its habitat and special adaptations for survival in that habitat.

Students also created Birding Journal notebooks.*

* Students' Weekly Homework Assignment
Students are to take their Birding Journal notebook home each week and then return it to class again every Wednesday. At home, students are to spend at least 10 minutes observing, sketching and writing about at least one new bird that they see during the week. Students will use six clues to help them identify each new bird. These clues are in their Birding Journals along with an example.

* Parents' Homework Assignment:
Please check our class web site with postings of class news, updates, projects and field trips. *Please remind your children to do their weekly assignment neatly and thoroughly and to return their Birding Journal notebook to school every Wednesday.

February

2 Virtual Birding
Students shared, discussed and tried to identify the birds they observed, sketched and wrote about in their journals during the week. They learned about and contrasted the methods of two avain artists: John James Audubon and Roger Tory Peterson. Then, students learned how to use Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide to Eastern Birds. Students played a Virtual Birding game, using the field guides to identify 30 different birds presented to them in a slide show.

Students also learned about falconry and observed my little kestrel falcon ("Sierra") as I free flew her across the room for her dinner.

9 Flight

- Students brainstormed "Things That Fly" and divided them into categories: natural things, mechanical things, make believe, etc.

- Students participated in an experiment that demonstrated "lift," then they learned about the four forces: lift, thrust, weight (gravity) and drag and how thrust and lift enable both an airplane and a bird to fly.

- They compared a bird's body and a human body to determine how our bodies would need to be reshaped to enable us to fly.

- Using field guide books and their assignments in their birding journals, students shared the birds they saw this past week and tried to identify them.

- Finally, students learned how to construct paper airplanes in the shape of a falcon's wings, and we went outdoors to fly them. - The wonderful breeze made for delightful flying weather!

- We will not have class next Wednesday, so on February 23rd, students will have two assignments due in their birding journals. Happy Valentine's Day.

 

23
Grades 1 - 3
- Students went on a bird walk with binoculars and saw and/or heard mourning doves, cardinal,s Carolina wrens, blue jays, mockingbirds, laughing gulls and turkey vultures.
- They examined and discussed bird bones.
- They shared their birding journals.
- They discussed our March 16th Field Trip, which will be from 9:15 - 1:30 p.m. They also received field trip permission forms. Parents, please fill out, sign and return to class. If you can chaperone, please send me an e-mail.

Grades 4 - 5
- Students shared their birding journals
- They examined bird bones
- Modeling: They read a poem by Donald Hall, The Boy. Then they wrote an original poem, using a bird they've observed as a subject in place of the boy.
- They discussed our March 16th Field Trip, which will be from 9:15 - 1:30 p.m. They also received field trip permission forms. Parents, please fill out, sign and return to class. If you can chaperone, please send me an e-mail.

* No class next week because of FCAT .

Ornithology for Kids class

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