Lesson 1 | birds-unit

Lesson 1: Bad Habit?

Answer this for me, How good can you act? I hope your students do because that is exactly what we will be doing this lesson... Acting. The students will get a chance to act out the behaviors of birds in way of charades.

***If possible please rent the music room for this lesson as it will give room for the students to act out*** ***the bird behavior.***

As you can see there are several things the students can act out, every student will get a chance. The number of students that can be in an activity will be listed in every paragraph to explain them. After each is acted out I have listed a bit of information for each to help clear anything up and give the birds a more valid reason for acting the way they do.

#1: Building a Nest

One of the things that birds do is build nests. They are used to house the eggs and keep the young safe when they first hatch.

This act will require about 2 people to symbolize the parents building a nest, gathering twigs, dried leaves and fluff.

#2: Hunting For food

Every living being has to take in some form of nourishment, including birds.

This activity can be with about 5 people or less. Just get them to fly/hop around looking for food pecking and scratching at the ground every now and then.

#3: Warming the eggs

This one is really easy. The reason that birds sit on the nest is to keep the eggs warm. It is no different than a mother with her unborn child it's just that human mothers don't have to sit on nests because humans don't lay eggs. That'd be just weird.

This act will require 2 people, one person to sit on the nest and another to help keep watch and go gather food for the one on the "nest". Preferably 1 girl and 1 boy, it doesn't matter who sits and who watches out for the other.

#4: Males Diverting Attention

Have you ever wondered why the males of species are often brightly colored as in peacocks. The males take advantage of their colors to oftentimes divert teh attention from the female and the young. With the female being more natural colors it is easier for her to hide with the young and the predator notices moreso the male with his kooky colors.

This act will take about 7 people, and at least one of them has to be a girl and one a boy. The girl will act as a protector for the young (4), the boy will get another predator bird to come follow him because of his "bright" colours.

#5: Migrating

I am pretty sure that everyone knows why certain birds migrate south in the winter months, because it is too cold for them here.

This act is relatively easy and you need at least 7 people to act as if flying in a formation that looks like this.

#6: Flying Lessons

All birds except the flightless ones eventually need to learn how to fly.

This act requires about 7 people. 2 will be the parents (1 girl and 1 boy), they will be able to fly easily. The other 5 will have to act like they have never flown before, just attempting to fly by fluttering their wings.

Charades

The students will get to in groups demonstrate the behaviors above for the class, each group with a different behavior. The students will have to respectfully answer what the group is trying to demonstrate. *** The people acting cannot say anything at all and must be silent during the whole thing.

After The Successful Guess...

Following every single act will be the explaining of why birds do that. Don't just right off the bat give them the answers, first ask the stdents why the bird do that. If no one answers or the answer given is insufficent please give a short explaination using the paragraphs above that are below each of the names of the habit. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate but just enough to give them the general idea why the birds do that.