I think of all of our units this was one of my kids’ favorite animal units. They loved our birds unit because it afforded them so many opportunities to make things and to act out what they learned.
Anatomy of a bird activities
Why not start with the beginning of birds (unless, did the chicken come first?) and try some egg experiments.
Then look at a bird’s bones and compare it with a cow’s bone. Comparing bones is a great activity to build observational skills.
My favorite bird activity was our feather experiments, partially because I got to do the oil slick feather experiment.
Finally, and I think this was the kids’ favorite of this section: design a bird. Whose bird can fly the farthest? (As a side note, looking at pictures in this post just shows how OLD my kids are now, they were so little in this post)
Bird behavior activities
Owls are an interesting creature because they swallow their food whole and then after digestion barf up their food as owl pellets. I found a great source for owl pellets, and we dissected them.
Then maybe try out a bird migration activity. My kids had a love hate relationship with this one, because by the end they were very tired.
I always think I have a post for this activity, but I don’t, so here’s a bonus activity. In many bird species the male does bizarre things to attract the female’s attention. In this bird’s case they puff up their chest and assume strange positions and FREEZE until the female picks her mate. This activity was done over and over and over again for a month straight. The kids would run around and then I’d yell “Girl bird,” and they’d freeze until I picked the most interesting “boy bird.” It really cracked them up.
For all of the posts in this series head on over to Zoology for Kids.
For a great series of posts written by some other awesome homeschooling Moms (including about 3 more series on science) head on over to Summer Hopscotch 2014
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