Resources and conversation on PreK to 2 science
Birds in
Winter
Science and art go hand-in-hand,
as scientists make art to share their
observations. Two scientists who
are widely known first as artists are
Leonardo de Vinci, anatomist and
inventor, and Beatrix Potter, mycologist. Both of these scientists used observations of the natural world as the
springboard for their discoveries.
Young children like to paint and
draw and are learning that they can
make representations and share
their stories with artwork. Use your
students’ interest in drawing to teach
about recording and sharing scientific
observations. Making observations
about living things is part of the
National Science Education Content
Standards A and C for grades K–4.
Birds are an interesting subject
to observe and draw because they
are so beautiful and so varied.
Children can observe birds, draw
birds, identify birds, and measure
and count them. Making observations gives an additional purpose
to taking the class on a quick walk
around the school building whenever they need a short break to
sharpen their attention. Comment
on birds around the school and
passing by the playground. Name
them or ask the children to name
them, if possible. It’s okay to use
an appropriate made-up name
such as “the black ones with the
white speckles” or the “red bird”
to help others identify the bird another time. The birds you see will
vary depending on many factors,
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Science and Children
including place on the continent,
elevation, proximity to water,
amount of vegetation nearby, time
of year, and time of day.
For several days to a week, have
your students observe birds during
a walk around the school building
or the first five minutes of their daily
recess and record what they see by
answering these questions: Where
do you see birds? Are the birds in
trees, on the ground, in the water, or
in the air? Do you see the birds in the
same place every day? What are they
doing? Where have you seen birds eating? What size (color, shape) are the
birds? The questions can be written
on a checklist for students who read
to record one- or two-word answers.
The answers for that day or week can
be tallied and graphed. With subsequent observations, students will
begin to recognize some birds and
describe them by color, relative size,
and sometimes habit—where they
are found or what they are doing.
In some regions it makes sense
to do this activity in winter because
there may be fewer birds than usual
due to bird population migration—
and they can be easier to spot when
trees are leafless. In regions where
winter temperatures may not allow
for outdoor observations, do this
activity in another season.
Resource
National Research Council (NRC).
1996. National science education
standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Peggy Ashbrook (scienceissimple
@yahoo.com) is the author of
Science Is Simple: Over 250 Activities for Preschoolers and teaches
preschool science in Alexandria,
Virginia.
Bird Shapes
Objective:
To identify birds common to your area by shape and
color and to introduce scientific illustration
Materials:
• Bird identification chart or book
• Noncorrugated cardboard, plastic sheeting, or art
foam
• Large crayons with the labels peeled off in colors
that commonly occur in birds (typically black,
white, red, blue, gray, and brown)
• Paper
• Masking tape
Teacher Preparation:
Make silhouette shapes of local birds the class has
identified by tracing around the pictures in an identification book and using a copier or overhead projector
to blow the image up to life size (see measurements
listed in the book). Include various sized and different colored birds. Cut the shapes from noncorrugated
cardboard, stiff plastic, or art foam.
To make a rubbing, tape each shape to a table by
sticking loops of masking tape on the back, then tape
a piece of paper over the shape to cover it. Using the
appropriate color(s), rub or “wipe” the paper with
crayons. You can add minimal details such as eyes,
legs, and stripes to make the bird easier to identify.
Procedure:
1. Have the students use identification books to
identify birds they have seen. Some birds seem
the same at first glance—a chickadee might
be mistaken for a sparrow because of its small
size—but by focusing on the predominant color,
students can usually tell them apart.
2. While looking in the books, comment that by
drawing exactly what the birds look like in nature, the artist shows other people what to expect—what the actual birds look like. Introduce
the idea that bird species are in part defined by
their colors by saying, “The small brown bird is
a sparrow and is always brown and is never blue.
If you see a small blue bird, it must be a different
species of bird.”
3. Give the children the bird shapes to handle and
ask them to identify “their” bird by comparing
its shape to the teacher-made rubbing examples
(posted on the wall) or pictures in an identification book. Ask open-ended questions to help
them narrow the choices: Is the bird big or little?
What shape is the head? What kind of tail shape
does the bird have? Children can test their match
by laying the shape on top of the rubbing. Although at first glance a student might mistake a
chickadee for a sparrow, when questioned about
beak size, they usually notice the difference.
4. Help the children tape the bird shapes to a table,
tape paper over the shapes, and feel the shape
through the paper. Then they can make their
own rubbings using appropriate colors. To help
children understand the reason say, “If you want
to tell me about a bird that is brown, you have to
use brown to make the rubbing or else I might go
looking for a pink bird instead of a brown one.”
Explain that by using the actual colors of the birds
in our rubbings we can show other people what
the real birds look like. Scientists record what
they see in nature. We could look for a long time
and would never see a pink crow in nature! This
does not mean that the children should limit their
purely creative artwork to nature’s colors.
5. Have the students “feel” the paper with the crayon
to make the rubbing. Children grasp the idea of
rubbings better if you tell them to “pinch” the
crayon sideways, and to “wipe” or “feel” the paper
with the crayon. If this technique is new to them,
children are astonished to see the bird shape
emerging with each pass of the crayon. Encourage
them to add details such as eyes and feet.
Make additional rubbings of birds to use to tally
the number of times a bird species is seen. Tape the
rubbings vertically on a poster to create a graph of how
many of each species were sighted during a period of
time. Graphs make it easy to see how many of each
species of bird the children observed. Adding the bird
names to the graph is optional.
To emphasize that science and art are both important human activities, make the next project about
birds one in which the children create a new species,
perhaps with wild colors but a familiar shape.
February 2007 17
Teacher’s Picks
Books
What’s happening at
http://science.nsta.org/
earlyyearsblog.
Why is it important to teach early
childhood science?
Good science education in the early years
invites children to become active learners.
It offers opportunities for complex thinking
and problem-solving in a developmentally
appropriate manner, because the concepts
under study are concrete and accessible.
Young children begin to develop habits of
mind like fearless hypothesizing, energetic
study-over-time, dogged persistence, and
willingness to withhold judgment while following the breadcrumbs left by the data.
They can work collegially to investigate a
question, sharing information related both
to content and process. In short, of all the
subject areas, science is the best suited to
young learners. We MUST teach it and we
must do so with knowledge, passion, and
sense of breathless wonderment.
Nancy McDonough
Second-grade teacher
Tenafly, New Jersey
Counting Is for the Birds. Frank Mazzola Jr. 1997. Charlesbridge.
Useful as both a counting book and
a bird identification book, sections
of this informative book can also
be read aloud as children point out Peggy Ashbrook
birds they have seen.
How the Robin Got Its Red Breast: A Legend of the Sechelt
People. Sechelt Nation. 1993. Nightwood Editions.
Compelling black-and-white illustrations relate the
Sechelt legend of how the robin got its colors. Traditional tales often teach about the natural world while
serving as guides for proper conduct.
Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America. Kenn
Kaufman. 2005. Houghton Mifflin.
A field guide with digitally enhanced photographs and
pointers (leader lines) to field marks (distinguishing
markings or aspects to note that aid identification),
this book is fun for children to use for identification
purposes, to browse through, or to read about a particular species.
Rainbow Crow. Nancy Van Laan. 1989. Alfred A.
Knopf.
A retelling of a Lenape Indian story tells how the Crow
became black, a result of his bravery. Several species
of birds are illustrated, all in natural colors.
Internet
Birder's World magazine
www.birdersworld.com/brd/default.aspx
Get answers to questions such as “What to do if you
find a baby bird?” and others in the “Birders’ Basics”
section. “Photo of the Week” offers readers’ views of
many bird species.
PEGGY ASHBROOK
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/birding123/
identify/index_html
On the All About Birds page, read “Birding 1-2-3: How
to Identify Birds” to learn how to use the following
features as aids to bird identification: silhouette, field
marks, posture, size, flight pattern, and habitat. The
silhouettes in these sections are particularly helpful
in comparing bird size.
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Science and Children