We are all a little bit bird crazy around here since Miss Emerald has stolen our hearts, and she has inspired such love and caring in the boys, they are so much more aware of all the bird in our environment and they are so full of questions- endless questions lol.
That led to the boys requesting we do a unit study on birds- Australian native birds.
They let me know all the things they wanted us to learn- and which particular birds we would be studying and whilst the parade of beautiful visitors to the bird feeder in the garden inspired us all I planned our next terms work.
We will be studying a different bird species each week- starting with parrots , then we will look at storks and cranes, kookaburras and kingfishers, raptors, owls, seabirds, showstoppers- lyrebirds and bower birds, little birds- wrens and finches etc, pelicans and winding up with pigeons and doves.
We will be using our trusty field guide- Simpson and Days- Birds of Australia.
Steve Parish's - Amazing Facts about Australian Birds
Gramercy Press- The World Atlas of Birds
Readers Digest Pathfinders - Birds
A well loved stack of Nation Geographic Magazines , I have gone through our shelf and pulled out all the relevant issues, and also some Australian geograhic's as well.
For specific information on the birds we will visit the fantastic Birds in Backyards website.
I have also planned in a lot of field work
- bird watching in various habitats
- surveying how many and exactly who visits our yard
- researching and making more bird feeders to support local native birds in our area
- researching and planting out specific trees to help our feathered friends.
Other planned acivities include
origami and writing haiku with storks and cranes
Johnathon Livingstone Seagull with waterbirds
needlefelting a little bird
lots of art activities
a canoe trip
5 comments:
Your bird pix are wonderful and of course you know which ones I love!!! Sometimes I get envious about the lovely coloured birds that visit you, until the other morning, looking out my kitchen window, I had a black and white symphony. Three magpies, 3 peewees, 2 currawongs and a willy wagtail. Pretty special too I think. Luv nanny
They are all lovely I agree, but I also think we are a bit spoiled here.
You get so many beautiful parrots there. Their calls must be just lovely, too. Have you been recording many of them at all?
That is a great idea Alecat, although most of the parrots are quiet- except the raucous rainbow lorikeets and we don't need to record that one as Miss Emerald gives us regular live performances :-)
I would love to record the owls at night for the boys to hear as they are always asleep when they are here, the most beautiful singers are the magpies
Your study is going to be a lot of fun. Reinforcing the bindings of the books is a great idea!
Aren't the rainbow lorikeets noisy!! They were very keen on our apricot tree last summer.
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