Bird Camp Day 8

Wednesday was a very exciting day at camp. We went on a field trip to the Riverwoods Animal Hospital in Provo. Heather, a nurse at the animal hospital, showed us many things at the hospital. We even got to meet some of the animal residents of the hospital which include an Australian Umbrella Cockatoo, a South African Tortise, and a Blue-Gold Macaw Parrot from the Rainforest. The children especially enjoyed holding the Cockatoo, who liked to dance and say hi.

Many of the children also enjoyed playing animal hospital during centers on Wednesday.

Bird Camp Day 7

Our science experiment on Tuesday was "Which beak is best?" We used several "beak-like" tools to crack nuts, eat seeds, suck nectar, and scoop Swedish Fish. The experiment helped us understand why birds have different beaks.
Some children have really enjoyed the writing center. They like to write stories and contribute to our class ABC book.

We got out our bird puppets and enjoyed some very entertaining puppetry.
Since we are learning about bird sounds, we decided to have a music center for the kids to experiment with sounds. We even had a few children write their own bird songs!


The bug center was very popular today. The children enjoyed collecting "rolly-pollies" and other bugs birds like to eat.

We were so fortunate to have Jim Biser, an ornithologist, come and teach both classes about identifying birds by sound. He taught them how to listen for robins, magpies, starlings, and other birds common to our area.

Bird Camp Day 6

On Monday of our second week, we spent time making a class book about birds. The students worked in pairs and researched interesting bird topics. They then created a page about their findings for our class book.The classes also enjoyed centers on Monday. They made bird hats, looked at birdseed in the microscope, worked on a bird ABC book and did a science experiment with Miss Natalie. Miss Natalie's science experiment asked the question, "Do eggs breathe?" After hypothesizing and experimenting, the kids concluded... "Yes! Eggs can breathe."

Bird Camp Day 5

Friday was Bird Olympics Day. Our Olympic events included a chicken run, eating worms in mud (gummy worms in chocolate pudding), building towers with bird beaks, and bird sorting. We also enjoyed making edible bird nests for snack. What a fun day!

Bird Camp Day 4

On Thursday, Miss Natalie gave a wonderful lesson on flight. She taught about the Wright Brothers and how birds inspired their first airplane design. She challenged everyone to experiment with creating their own paper airplanes. We took the planes outside and did a test flight.
We enjoyed a fun cooking project where we made bird bread and ate it for snack.

The writing center became more popular on Thursday. We used Mo Williem's "Don't Let the Pidgeon Drive the Bus" as inspiration for our stories.

We do bird shares each morning at large group. A volunteer is chosen to create a poster or small report about a specific bird and share it with the class. In this picture, John is teaching us about his pet chickens.

Bird Camp Days 2 & 3

During the past two days of Bird Camp, we have enjoyed some terrific guest speakers. On Tuesday we were lucky to have BYU's Bean Museum present a bird show. On Wednesday we had a chance to hear from two members of the Utah County Birders Association. Here are a few highlights...

Our speaker from the Bean Museum brought several stuffed birds including a hummingbird, Great-Horned Owl, and Kingfisher. We learned several cool bird facts. Did you know a hummingbird can flap their wings 20-80 times a second?!

The morning class was priveledged to hear from Lyn Gardner. He talked to the class about several of the birds we often see in our backyards. We even saw and heard some of them while he was speaking!

Merrill Webb, the president of the Utah Country Birders Association, spoke to the afternoon class. He showed the class two stuffed owls: a Northern Saw-Whet and a Barn Owl. He taught the class that there are 3 things birdwatchers need... a field guide, binoculars, and a friend! The kids really enjoyed looked through his high-powered binoculars and spyscope.

Bird Camp Day 1

We had a wonderful first day of Bird Camp. Both the morning and afternoon sessions were very enthusiastic about camp. Today we answered the question, "What is a bird?" We learned that birds have feathers, lay eggs, have two wings, two legs, and a beak.

The children were especially excited about the bird camp pets. We have four baby chickens and two Zebra Finch birds.

One of the activites we did for centers today was "feather art." They could paint with feathers, glue feathers, make crayon rubbings of feathers...basically, they were supposed to be creative with feathers!

At the writing center, we made observation journals. They will use these journals to write down what they are learning about birds and to draw observational drawings of birds.

During the afternoon session, some of our older students enjoyed figuring out where different species of birds live and then placed them on the map.

After centers each day we meet for large group. We discuss the question of the day. Today's question was, "Which is the tallest bird?" The answer was an ostrich! We then learned more about ostriches.








For our project work experience today, we went on a bird scavenger hunt. After learning about the different features of birds, we looked for some of those features on different birds. Some of the kids enjoyed trying to classify the birds.