What is a bird?

Students will be able to understand basic physical characteristics of birds.
Students will practice their observation and field journaling skills.
Students will problem solve on how best to attract more birds to the school.

This lesson would be lesson three within a greater unit (attracting more birds to the school and observing birds), lesson one would focus on guided discovery of the materials that will be used with this unit (i.e. bird journals), and lesson two would be focused on what is a habitat. The topic of bird study would span the entire year, incorporating the skills of phenology, weather, mathematics, reading, and writing. Fall would be the best time to start this unit and particularly this lesson; students need to make birding observations throughout the entire school year. This allows them to see the change from hardly any birds to a variety of species within the schoolyard. This activity along with the rest of the unit ties many third grade standards together as well as some of the FOSS kits used for third grade (i.e. weather and plants and animals). If one would want to create the rest of the unit, there are many lessons already established that one would need to tailor to meet their own school and classroom needs.
- This lesson would take 45 minutes
- Materials needed:
o Images of birds or stuffed animals of birds
o Journals for each student
o Visit https://www.bird-sounds.net/ to listen to different birds
o Thayer Birding software contains:
Images
Videos
Songs
Quizzes
Information 
o Birding 101 packet from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/birding123/identify/index_html
This contains bird body parts, silhouette images, and bird facts
oPencils and colored pencils
oChart paper
oMarkers

1. Engage students by having them listen to various bird songs. Have students discuss with their neighbors what they think and feel about the songs they heard.
2. Explain to the students that today they will be learning about what a bird is, but they will be doing this outside.
3. Take the students, with their journals and pencils, outside and have them gather in a circle. Inform the students they will be looking at different pictures and stuffed animals of birds. Have them write in their journals their observations about the birds they are looking at, discourage them from naming what bird they think their observing.
a.Have each image or stuffed animal placed in various spots around the schoolyard; label them with different letters (i.e. robin = A). The students may label in their journals bird A or bird B, etc. depending on what bird they are observing in order to organize their thoughts.
4. Model how students will observe using their journals, see attached.
5. Have the students observe at least 3 of the birds in the yard, I would put out 10-15 birds to allow for smaller groups of students observing them at a time.
6. Give the students 15-20 minutes to observe.
7. Gather students back together and discuss what they found out.
8. Put their observations on chart paper. Divide the chart paper in half and label one side common characteristics and the other unique characteristics.
a. Examples could be beak, feathers, etc.
b. Part two of this lesson would be learning the specific names for the bird parts.
9. Then send the students back out in the school yard but this time to observe the trees and the ground for birds, have them write down their observations in the attached form.
10. Model this before sending them out. Also, have them tally how many total birds they see while observing (gathering data will be important for the entire unit).
11. Have them observe for another 10-15 minutes.
12. Bring students back together and discuss what they observed. Focus on how they were able to know they were observing birds (i.e. physical characteristics) and the number of birds they observed. Pose the question to the students on why or why not did we spot birds in the yard. Make sure to focus on what type of habitat the schoolyard is and what things would birds need in order to live here. Help direct the students into deciding how they can attract more birds (i.e. bird feeders and a bird bath).
13. Closure for this lesson will be having the students write down their idea on how to attract birds to the schoolyard.
School Yard Observation Template (Microsoft Word 19kB Aug3 09) 
Observation Journal Template (Microsoft Word 19kB Aug3 09)

- You will need to make sure you lay ground rules and procedures for how students should behave and act when learning outside.
- You should also make sure to take a look at various bird units and establish and lay out your entire unit prior to getting started.
- If you plan on adding a bird feeder and birdbath to your school yard then you'll need administration support as well as local grants to fund the birdseed needed for school year.
- It is important to print out Birding 101 from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, various images of birds, purchase a few birding guides (i.e. Peterson First Guides), journals, and make sure you know how the observation format works.
o If you can purchase Thayer Birding software this will provide you with all the information you will need about various birds.
- Modeling each step will be vital to the success of the overall lesson

Assessment of the students will be based on the accuracy with which they fill out their observation journals. They will also be assessed on whether or not they can label the basic physical characteristics of birds in order to recognize them in nature.

Life Science 3.4.1.1.1: compare how the different structures of plants and animals serve various functions of growth, survival, and reproduction
Life Science 3.4.1.1.2: Identify common groups of plants and animals using observable physical characteristics, structures, and behaviors.