Layered
Curriculum Unit: Birds (4th grade)
By Angela Kanerva & Katie Golin
Pinckney Elementary
School
C Layer Choices:
1. Bird Words: Make flashcards for the following words, memorize them
& get quizzed. warm-blooded, contour feather, down feather,
migration, inborn behavior, instinct, learned behavior, bill, webbed
feet, talons.
2. A Bat is Not A Bird: In Class activity
3. National Geopraphic Parrot People: We'll read the article
together in class then answer the worksheet questions.
4. Data Collection Sheet: Complete in the computer lab.
5. Time for Kids: A Sticky Situation In Class activity.
6. On the Move: Map skills worksheet showing where birds migrate.
7. Bird Big Book: Write a simple non-fiction writing piece about
a
bird that you choose.
8. Textbook: Read pages 84-86 and Answer Questions 1-3 and
Think!
9. Textbook: Read pages 110-114 and Answer Questions 1-3 and
Think!
10. Venn Diagram: Create a Venn Diagram of two birds. You
must include at least the following information in the Venn Diagram:
length, weight, diet, habitat, predators, prey, adaptations and 2
interesting facts.
11. Guess My Bird: Find a bird and collect data to create a feathers
riddle done together in class.
12. Bird Bills and Feet: Worksheet about the adaptations of
birds.
B Layer Choices:
1. Build a Bird House: Create a bird house of your choosing,
filled
with seed. There are varioous BIRD BILLS that are adaptations for
different birds. Draw and identify four different bird bills and
how they are useful to help the bird survive.
2. Food Web Poster: Make a food web of at least 15 animals. Identify
and
label the animals as herbivore, carnivore or omnivore.
3. Graphy Bird: Create a graph of at least 15 birds. Sort them
according to an adaptation (for example: webbed feet, flying, beaks...)
and create a graph that explains your data.
4. Ecosystem Poster: Design your own poster of an ecosystem
of your choosing. You can draw any amount of plants and animals
you
choose but they all must fit the criteria of an appropriate
ecosystem. For example: Put a penguin in with the seals and polar
bears of the Arctic, not in the rainforest).
A Layer Choices:
1. What happened to the eggs? Answer all of the questions
in
the book about the picture on page 87. Use good reasoning skills
and support your opinion with details.
2. Rachel Carson in the Food Chains and Webs Book page 12: Read
about her choices and fears for the animal population. How did
she
think the problems were effecting the insect population and how does
that
connect to the bird population?