Summary Activities on birds: paper airplanes to understand flight, feather and nest studies, modelling bird beaks eating different foods. Science content Biology: Features, Adaptations of Living Things (K, 1, 3, 7) Biology: Classification of Living Things, Biodiversity (1, 3) Activities in this lesson Bird nest study Feather study Paper airplanes Bird beak / animal eating style adaptations Materials Materials in the activities Procedure Set up as stations for older students. For younger students do studies at the carpet, then bird beak adaptations as a class. Bird nest study Look closely at different nests, and discuss what materials they are each made of, and how the materials are woven together (with just a beak and feet!) Feather study Look closely at feathers, ideally from different parts of the body (wing, tail, down) if possible. Optionally play the birdsongs for the birds of each nest/feather. (Students should recognise crow call.) Flight and wing shape Fly paper airplanes and modify them to understand how wing shape determines the flight of birds Bird beak eating styles Model different kinds of beaks and how they can pick up different kinds of food. Bird evolution: Birds are living dinosaurs! What we understand as dinosaurs are actually the first birds. Not all of the dinosaurian close relatives of birds could fly, but those that could flew in a range of different ways, suggesting early evolutionary experiments of flight, with birds being the most successful of those experiments. (from https://www.birdlife.org/news/2021/12/21/its-official-birds-are-literal….) Grades taught Gr K Gr 4 Gr 5
