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Bird Nature Study Printables – Learning About Birds

Bird Nature Study Printables from Homeschool Creations



With spring in full swing in our area, the birds are headed to our feeder and making their presence known! It has been so exciting to see a few new varieties of birds as well, including a woodpecker, some wrens, and even goldfinches. This week we’re wrapping up our homeschool science programs and heading outdoors for some hands-on and up-close learning about birds. I am so excited about it and of course had to make some printables to go along with our learning. (And I may have a wee bit of a crush on the clip art too!)

The Bird Nature Study Printables set contains:

Bird Nature Study Printables sample

    • Nature walk counting sheet – mark a tally every time you see one of the birds on the sheet 
    • Feeder frenzy counting – mark a tally when you see a bird at your feede   
    • Bird scavenger hunt – for younger children, take this scavenger hunt sheet on a nature walk or when watching the feeder
    • Bird observation sheet – record data and information on a variety of birds. There is a blank one at the end for other species, but sheets are included for 12 varieties: robin, cardinal, goldfinch, wren, pigeon, oriole, hummingbird, woodpecker, nuthatch, blue jay, Eastern blue bird, and mockingbird
    • Label the parts of a bird   
    • Story writing prompt – write a short story using four of the words provided
    • Poem and coloring page based on a Mother Goose rhyme

  

 

 


 

 

Additional Learning Ideas and Inspiration

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A few weeks ago a box of stickers from Tyndale’s  Faith That Sticks sticker line showed up on our doorstep. One of my favorites was the God’s Beautiful Birds sticker pack. The stickers feature nine different birds that are focused on in this nature study pack (along with a few others) and were a fun addition to our nature study.

We’ll be doing a few of the things below this week with our stickers. There are six sticker sheets in the set, so plenty to use for a few of the following ideas including:

· Using two sheets to create a matching game. Simply cut 18 3×3 squares of cardstock and put a sticker on each piece. Then have fun matching them up.

· Use the stickers as a guide and have your child sketch their own image of the bird. These stickers have some great colors that are eye-catching!

· Write a story using the stickers. Have your child write their own story picking 2 or 3 of the stickers or have them dictate one to you.

· Make some fun spring cards using the beautiful birds and let your child create a ‘scene’ to put the birds into!

· For older children, put each of the 9 stickers onto a 3×3 cardstock square and let them practice alphabetizing the birds.

· Make popsicle stick puppets with each of the bird stickers.

· Create a simple windsock and use the stickers to decorate. The stickers are light enough that they won’t add extra weight to the windsock.

· Make a fun bracelet with a few of the stickers and wear it on a nature walk. See what birds you find as you walk along!

 

Learning About Birds: Other Resources

Don’t miss these additional printables and helps for your bird nature study!

 

Our Favorite Books about Birds

What birds do you see frequently in your area?

Are there any that you get excited to see?

 

Insect Nature Study Printables from Homeschool Creations

If you like these printables, be sure to download our Insect Nature Study Printables as well! 

Bird Lapbook ~ Preschool Corner

Preschool CornerLast week I pulled out the robin lapbooks that the three older kids had done a few years ago. The moment Kaleb saw those three pulled out he wanted to know where his was. After realizing he didn’t have one ~ well we had a project for this week!

Our week started out with Kaleb staring out the window at the daddy cardinal that loves to sit in the tree off our back porch. The pair of cardinals are at our feeder constantly and we love watching them!

For Kaleb’s bird lapbook we used only one file folder and the minit books from Homeschool Share’s Backyard Birds file. I opened the file folder flat and then re-folded it so that there were two smaller flaps on the sides. The above picture shows the front and the back of his lapbook. For the back cover, Kaleb colored a picture of a robin for me. For the front he

Putting the Bird Lapbook Together

Monday: A Bird’s Habitat ~ Our backyard

  • Identifying differences between male and female birds ~ minit book
  • What do birds eat? minit book
  • How do birds find their food? There were several robins hoping around in the yard outside our school window. We had so much fun watching the robins in our yard and learning that they actually see the ground move.

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Tuesday: Life Cycles/Nesting ~ Getting ready for babies

  • What are the predators of robins? minit book
  • Who builds the nest?

Bird Lapbook-1

Wednesday

  • Baby birds minit book ~ what do bird eggs look like?
  • Talked about where birds build nests
  • Kaleb dictated and then illustrated two robin stories {I did the writing below!!}.
    Here are Kaleb’s pictures and stories:

Birds lay eggs. They sit on the eggs. Then they hatch. They grow and turn into a dad or mom.

Bird Lapbook-4

Birds lay eggs on the ground, in trees, on buildings, and in holes. Robins lay four eggs. They are about the size of a quarter.

Bird Lapbook-5

Thursday ~ Putting the lapbook together

On Thursday we glued the pieces of Kaleb’s lapbook together {and were a little camera-shy}.

Bird Lapbook-3

That about sums up our week. Other than Kaleb asking every single day when we could do another chalk pastel together of a cardinal.

Thinking that needs to be on the list for next week, eh?

How was your week?

Links for Learning About Birds

 

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Learning About Birds ~ Preschool Corner

Preschool CornerWe are having so much fun learning about birds together. So much, that we’re going to do more next week as well. I was going back through some of the things that I did with Zachary years ago and have been planning a few other fun things for us to do together. I have to laugh as I look through these pictures ~ Kaleb apparently likes all of his blue shirts a whole lot! Here’s a little peek at what we worked on this week.

Identifying Bird Calls

The older kids are learning about birds in our science time with Nancy Larson® Science 2, and one of the things we all enjoyed this week was listening to different bird calls through the cd-rom in the book Common Birds and Their Songs.

Common Birds and their Songs

The kids were trying to figure out which bird calls they’ve heard in our own backyard and laughing at some of them. We were finally able to figure out one of the bird calls that we’ve heard often ~ a pileated woodpecker!! Kaleb noticed one on a branch outside of our school room a few months ago. We haven’t seen him since, but we have heard him.

Bird's Nest

When we were cutting back our ferns this week, I found a bird’s nest that was hidden inside from last spring. Kaleb and I had fun looking at it…until he realized that the black stuff inside was most likely bird poop.

Bird Themed Arts & Crafts

Backyard Birds Cards

Michaels had miniature wooden birdhouses for $1 and Kaleb picked out one to paint this week. It’s now sitting in our windowsill near all of our Backyard Birds cards for when we are looking out and identifying birds together.

Rice Krispie Nests

Rice Krispie Nests were one of our snacks for the week too. Laurianna helped with the rice krispie part and Kaleb had fun tinting the coconut with food coloring to add to the nests. We used jelly beans as our eggs, but they were a huge hit.

Robin Footprint Craft

I saw this cute Footprint Robin and it was something that I knew Kaleb would love and may be super cute to frame and hang it the school room too {grins}. He loved having his feet painted and finishing up the project too!

Birds Nest Craft

ALL of the kids wanted to make the birds in a nest craft once they saw Kaleb making one.  Apparently you are never too old to paint a paper plate and make a mess everywhere!

Chickadee Pastel

We dove into the realm of soft chalk pastels and all of the kids drew a chickadee {thanks to HodgePodge for the tutorial}. Kaleb had a little help with the initial body shape, but he did all the rest on his own ~ colors and tracing to finish his project!

Bird Themed Printables

Bird Themed Printables

The One More and One Less pages from the Kindergarten Bird Printables were a HUGE hit with Kaleb. Do-A-Dot markers were again once of our go-to things to grab to mark off the numbers that we added and subtracted.

Parts of a Bird Printable

We’ve been working on many of the other printables from the Bird Preschool Pack as well as the new Kindergarten Bird Printables. When the older kids were learning about the parts of a bird, Kaleb worked on the modified version that I put together for him on the parts of a bird printable.

A Few of Our Bird Resources


 


 

 

More Bird Activity Links

Bird Printables Collage
 

~ Kindergarten Bird Printables
~ Bird Preschool Pack and Printables from Homeschool Creations
~ Bird Preschool Pack and Printables from 1+1+1=1
~ F is for Feather from Spell Outloud
~ N is for Nest from Confessions of a Homeschooler
~ Totally Tots Bird Theme Posts
~ Bird Sensory Tub @ Totally Tots
~ Edible Bird’s Nest
~ Yarn Bird’s Nest {via Adventures of Bear}

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! Grab a button for your post below and be sure to take a minute to visit the person who linked up before you. You can read more in the updated guidelines for Preschool Corner.

Be specific in your ‘link title’. Leave either your blog name or theme and provide an age range for your activities. Something a little like this:

Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

Preschool Corner

 

 

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Outside Our Window

For the last two weeks, this has been the view right outside our dining room window.

robin nest 

The momma bird gets a little skittish when we come outside {our van is right near the tree} ~ and really, with Zachary around, who can blame her?

Last night I was able to sneak over to the nest when she was off getting some food for herself and hold my camera up over the nest and get a little peek inside…

robin eggs

I do believe this mom of four is a little partial to this momma robin! :) We’ve pulled out our robin lapbooks from last year and are taking a little refresher course this spring. Hopefully we’ll be seeing some little beaks in the next week!

Preschool Corner: Robin Lapbook

We had a little robin who decided to build a nest right in front of our house and we were able to watch the entire process. The kids were thrilled to discover that she had laid three eggs.

Zachary was the one who alerted us to the fact there were eggs in the nest ~ after he reached up, stuck his hand in the next one morning and felt the eggs.

We had a little discussion about leaving bird’s nests alone. Yes, we did.

That seemed like a great time to avoid those last few pesky letters of the alphabet that are hanging over my head and use the time to learn as much as we could about robins. It would be a shame to waste a perfectly good learning opportunity, don’t you think?

Drawing a picture of a robin

I posted about the robin lapbooks that the girls put together along with some great links, but wanted to do a separate post for Zachary’s lapbook, since it was a little different and more ‘directed’ by him. He was so excited to have school time along with the girls and feels like he is really doing school right now. It’s so funny to watch him.

Zachary’s lapbook only used one file folder ~ I opened it flat and then re-folded it so that there were two smaller flaps on the sides. The above picture shows the front and the back of his lapbook {cover pic is linked below} For the back cover, Zachary drew a picture of some worms and dictated a few sentences to me:

“Robins can see the ground moving. That means worms are going underground. They eat them.”

There are only a few minit books inside: Who’s Who {difference between male and female birds}, bird food, predators, a coloring sheet with a robin’s anatomy, clip art and a drawing Zachary made of a robin’s nest. I didn’t get a very good picture of his completed drawing, but it’s hysterical! The robins all have their heads straight up, mouths open and waiting for food. He was so proud because he did it all by himself and wrote “This iz a robin” along the top.

Here are a some shots inside the lapbook and with the minit books fully opened:

During the week we also worked on memorizing a little poem about “Little Robin Redbreast”. Zachary did great memorizing the first stanza of it:

Little Robin Redbreast

Little Robin Redbreast sat upon a tree,
Up went pussy cat and down went he;
Down came pussy, and away Robin ran;
Says little Robin Redbreast, “Catch me if you can.”

Little Robin Redbreast jumped upon a wall,
Pussy cat jumped after him and almost got a fall;
Little Robin chirped and sang, and what did pussy say?
Pussy cat said, “Meeow!” and Robin jumped away.


Links for the Lapbook
:

Be sure to check out my post about the girl’s robin lapbooks. I’m covering a lot more information about the things that we talked about during the week and will have more resources and links in that post!

About the Preschool Corner:

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

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Robin Lapbook and Unit Study

Little did I know that one simple robin’s nest would take us on an adventure into learning some fun things about robins ~ and more about the creativity of God!

We watched a mommy robin build her nest right outside our window, found out {thanks to Zachary putting his hand in the nest} that she had laid three eggs…and then watched and waited patiently.

Until she abandoned the nest three days before the eggs were supposed to hatch.

Regardless, we continued on with our robin study and learned so much. We’ve all been sharing the little tidbits that we’ve learned with others we know, because it’s too neat NOT to share!

At the end of the post I’ll include a full list of all the great links and resources we used over the last bit. I’ll also throw in some of the fun facts we learned as I post pictures of the lapbooks the girls put together. Tomorrow I’ll be posting the lapbook we did for Zachary as part of the Preschool Corner.

Every day we spent time memorizing “Little Robin Redbreast” and also sitting outside to observe the robins {and other birds} in our yard ~ their songs, habits, etc… We also worked on the minit books that went along with what we were studying that day.

Monday: A Robin’s Habitat ~ Our backyard

  • Identifying robins: difference between males and females ~ minit book
  • Scientific name of robins: turdus migratorius
  • Migration of robins & minit book
  • What do robins eat?
  • How do robins find their food? We had so much fun watching the robins in our yard and learning that they actually see the ground move ~ not hear like we originally thought!

Tuesday: Life Cycles/Nesting ~ Getting ready for babies

  • What are the predators of robins?
  • Who builds the nest?
  • Robins ‘chore chart‘ ~ who has what responsibilities in raising babies. You guessed it, it’s primarily the momma robin. We learned that the mom lays one egg a day and that it generally takes 2 weeks for the eggs to hatch. The mother robin spends on average about 50 minutes of each hour sitting on the eggs in the nest.

Wednesday: Keeping up with the babies

  • Feeding habits of babies ~ wow! We were amazed to learn that the parents have about 100 feedings a day. {And I thought that my kids ate a lot}
  • In the first two weeks of life, each baby eats the equivalent of 14 feet of worms ~ we even went into the backyard and measured that out.
  • Babies weigh less than a quarter when they are born and are almost the same size as their parent within 2 weeks.
  • Disposable diapers for birds ~ This was amazing!! Did you know that every time a baby robin eats it poops right away? That way the parents are there to pick up after them. Their poop is contained in a little sac that the parents can pick up {just like a disposable diaper} and carry away from the nest. This helps keep the nest clean.

Thursday: Listening to robin’s songs

  • What are the different songs of robins ~ we sat outside and listened to them
  • Put our lapbook and minit books together
  • Wrote/journaled and illustrated our robin stories. The girls used Draw Write Now to do the first page and then drew their own pictures on the second page. We use a lined journal that has room for drawing on the top of the page and then I photocopy their work to put in the lapbook.

Books we used

Free Bird Nature Study Printables!!

Bird-Nature-Study-Printables-from-Homeschool-Creations.jpg

If you are looking for some additional notebooking style pages, don’t miss the free Bird Nature Study Printables. It includes bird tracking, information pages, labeling activities and much more! 


Some Great Resources

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