Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Meet the Chickadee Bird Club

The Chickadee Bird Club -  Grades K-3
Four years ago I began incorporating my passion for birds and birding into my curriculum after noticing that young students were also very interested in it.  When I teach them their color words, I use colorful birds.  When I teach addition and subtraction story problems I often use birds.  Teaching them how to write sentences using their love of birds, helps them to want to write more.  It works really well! 

Since that time I've met with each grade every other week to have a Chickadee Bird Club meeting.  During the meetings I teach them about bird identification, habitat, migration and geography.  We check in on nest cams, a feeder cam and cool bird videos.  I show them what birds are in the area at that time and which ones to watch for.  I also teach students how to bird and ways to get out and enjoy nature. We have a good time and it is my favorite part of the week!  

Here are the 47 young birders. These kids can easily identify hundreds of birds and many bird songs.  They come to me in school with interesting bird reports and accounts of the latest life birds they've seen.  It is so much fun to share this with them!  I tell the kids that I don't expect them to grow up to be birders, but learning about birds is also learning about science.  It encourages them to learn and think about their natural world.  These lessons should help them to become more aware of birds, their environment and most of all, I hope that I have instilled a love of nature in each of them!

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