Bird Beak Adaptations

We have been working hard in our first grade science rooms to learn about invertebrates. That concept alone is very hard for littles, but it is on our road map so why not make it real? This week, we finished up on birds. My little birdies enjoyed a story about birds and their adaptations. From feet... to beaks birds are pretty sweet! I once again used EPIC books for my projectable book: Birds Of All Kinds.
 
We followed it up by discussing how baby birds learn to fly and then find their own food. What will the baby birds need to know? What will they have to learn on their own? What will they need to have?

After we shared...my baby birds were able to learn about the food (station explanation) that they were going to find. I gave them their checklist...my way of giving them ownership for their time management...and let them fly the coop! Here they are working on their stations!!!!

My little robins digging for worms...

My little hummingbirds sipping nectar...

My little cardinals cracking seeds....

Check out the flamingo scooping krill...

The little woodpeckers are busy digging for bugs...

My little swallow getting ready to catch a bug mid-air...

Finally my birds of prey as they rip and tear meat!

This activity will allow them to have the background to create their own beaks next week! What a great way to add STEM into my classroom! Adaptations are part of the new NGSS science standards as well! Here is my Bird Beak Stations and STEM Connections Pack on TPT ready for your little birdies to soar in science!

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Batty For YOU! Book Talk Time

This week in first grade...Bats are mammals, too! We have just covered what is a mammal and we are taking a little quiz to see what they know. Then, we will be reading Bat by Gail Gibbons. Who doesn't love Gail Gibbons?  I love this book so this is my feature book this week. Join Mrs. Jump's Class for Book Talk Tuesday.

Great non-fiction...just enough information for 1st graders to remember bat facts!

We will be using some of the activities in my new unit Bats: Bats Are Mammals, Too. I used the picture slides as a powerpoint to show the vocabulary words and then discuss what each word means. We then read the book, followed by the Bats can, have, are sentence starters fro the Bat Facts sheet. After the kiddos were done with the bat facts sheet, they could make a bat for our bat cave in the hall. They loved it. My teachers followed up with the other sheets and a follow up with Stellaluna.

I will be using the can, have, are sheet as I make a big one on the wall. We will follow up by understanding how bats are mammals, too. I am using the facts sheet as a group activity. Each person will fill out a sticky note to add to the sheet. As a group, each person will read their fact and then stick it on the sheet.  I will be passing on the Stellaluna to my classroom teachers to do the activity sheets. I gave them this great link from Storyline Online where you can find the reading of Stellaluna for free! This song is a cute beginning or end to compare birds and bats.

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Build Your Wild Self

Book Talk Tuesday..

Mrs. Jump's Class. with I love, love, love these books. What great graphics and these books are helping me teach about mammals with my first graders. I will be using these books this next week as I introduce what makes a mammal a mammal and how animals of all kinds learn to survive and adapt. These books are great for common core such as CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.1.2 Identify the main topic and retell key details of the text.

                           Check out the book for yourself!

Let's try a computer connection now! This site is a great link that allows students to Build Your Wild Self! from New York Zoos and Aquarium. Fun...Fun...Fun! One more fun thing...a freebie!

Animal Hair Freebie

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See You Later Alligator

We just finished learning about reptiles and have started our discussion about birds. Only having one hour a week to teach science to my kiddos, I try to read a story, do an activity or experiment, and finish off with a short craft, game, song, or writing activity in our science journals. Just a quick peek of a few things we have done with our animal unit in first grade this last week.

We made quick little gators after reading Gail Gibbons story Alligators and Crocodiles and doing our 5 little monkeys song. The kids love doing songs or chants.

Five little monkeys swinging in the tree
teasing Mr. Alligator can’t catch me….can’t catch me
along came Mr. Alligator quiet as can be
and snapped that monkey out that tree

Four little monkeys swinging in the tree
teasing Mr. Alligator can’t catch me….can’t catch me
along came Mr. Alligator quiet as can be
and snapped that monkey out that tree

Three little monkeys swinging in the tree
teasing Mr. Alligator can’t catch me….can’t catch me
along came Mr. Alligator quiet as can be
and snapped that monkey out that tree

Two little monkeys swinging in the tree
teasing Mr. Alligator can’t catch me….can’t catch me
along came Mr. Alligator quiet as can be
and snapped that monkey out that tree

One little monkeys swinging in the tree
teasing Mr. Alligator can’t catch me….can’t catch me
along came Mr. Alligator quiet as can be
and snapped that monkey out that tree

No more monkeys swinging in the tree!

We started our day with asking what they knew so far about birds. We made a huge list because their teachers have been front loading! Yea! We also made a list of birds that they knew. We know a lot of different birds. We drew our favorite in our science notebook and listed 3 things that made it a bird. Here is our class chart.

We worked with bird songs in the background! I love the loon calls, it reminds me of summer at the lake! Oh, I miss warm weather! We finished our time with a story and review today.

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