bird week - talking like birds

Day One - Eating Like Birds

Day Two - Building Like Birds

You have heard me say this before about other animals- "What does a bird sound like?  DEPENDS ON THE BIRD!"

Today was designed more for Avery than Sam but there was a lot of learning for Sam too. First I started by showing the girls a group of pictures of birds. I wanted Avery (and Sam) to really learn that not all birds say "tweet".

 
I asked if they were all birds. Then we went through the cards one by one talking about the birds and what they sounded like. Avery had a lot of fun showing me that she knew the sound for each bird. And the ones that she didn't know Sam helped her. We talked about how different all these birds sounded.

Then we pulled out the Identiflier to really look more closely at how different birds can sound.

 
We went through some of the birds that were in the pictures and then a few that Sam recognized from our backyard. Both girls love pushing the buttons and listening to the bird calls. I used the flashcards that I made last winter so that the girls would have larger photos of some of the birds that we were listening to.

 

We ended the day with some bird listening in our backyard and a walk in the neighborhood. The girls can't recognize birds by their calls just yet but they are showing much more of an interest in listening for them and knowing that they are different. And that is the point!

I wanted to pair a book with this activity but my library didn't have it right now. If you are interested in doing this activity or something similar I would encourage you to look into the book Bird Talk by Ann Jonas.

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The Nitty Gritty!

If you are a parent with a child (or children) that is even slightly interested in birds I would strongly encourage you to get an Identiflier. Birds calls are a very hard thing to teach to kids and this is the best tool I have seen for exposing them to that part of a birds life. Plus, the Identiflier also has cards for many other animals.

And for teachers this is a MUST in the classroom!