Cycles - Bird Songs

Focus: Most songbirds sing special songs in the spring to attract mates and to establish and defend territories; other calls may communicate messages such as danger or food sources.

Puppets (Rocky Raccoon, Mr. Bird, Ms. Bird)

Materials Checklist
Puppet Show (puppets, script, sign saying "Next Day 5:00 a.m. ..." )
Which Bird Sings Which Song? (audio tape of bird songs, tape player, color pictures of birds, or slide show, projector, screen)
Clock Chorus (large clock with moveable hands, bird tags - cut in bird shapes, strings or tape)
Bird Song Bingo (Bird Song Bingo cards, audio tape, tape player, animal crackers or other edible Bingo chips)
Singing My Song (tags from Clock Chorus, divided into two identical sets)
Singing Bird Survey (maps of school grounds, pencils, clipboards, binoculars if possible)
Chickadee Skits (5/6 ELF)(various audio chickadee recordings, tape player, Chickadee Skit scripts, bird feeder, bird seed, evergreen boughs)

Supplemental Reference Materials (Slide show scripts and Bird Song Review list: Grades K-2, Grades 3-6, Bird Song Bingo sheets, Clock Chorus illustrations, Bird Behavior Hunt card, 5/6 ELF Activity: Chickadee Skits)

Additional Reading/Resources
Feathers for Lunch, by Lois Ehlert, Voyager Books, 1996.
Music of the Birds, by Lang Elliot, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA, 1999.
Common Bird Songs, by Donald Borror, Dover Press, Mineola, NY, 2003.
ELF Corner: Rockin' Robins (pdf file)
Bird songs website.

ELF Notes - Template for newsletter on Bird Songs
* Word document * pdf file

For Younger Children
Many of the activities in VINS's new Small Wonders book can be used in ELF, too. To find appropriate activities for children aged 3-6, click here.

Teaching Suggestions

Which Bird Sings Which Song?
Encourage volunteers to borrow a copy of the bird song tape to take home so they can learn the songs before their workshops.

Clock Chorus and Singing My Song

You can have the children perform the Clock Chorus outside, as well as Singing My Song.

Use the line drawings provided for nametags – two of each kind, colored appropriately and labeled.

One volunteer recorded 3 minutes of bird songs in her neighborhood at 5:30, 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 and then played back the recording for children.

If you live in a city enviornment, you might modify Clock Chorus to include city specific birds such as crows (raucous “caw, caw”) and pigeons (soft “ca-coo, ca-coo”) and owls (“who cooks for you”).

Bird Song Bingo
For younger kids, turn off all lights, have everyone lie down away from other children, and play the audiotape with kids pretending it's morning time.

Let everyone cover one cell to start with (one “free” cell). Otherwise they might not even make a bingo! Play until the whole card is covered!

In urban settings, have the children identify which birds are commonly found in the city and which are not as familiar. Name other local birds (possibly pigeons, crows, gulls in some places, or others) and imitate their songs.

Singing Bird Survey
Ahead of time you may want to make (or have children make) binoculars out of toilet paper tubes to take outside.

Even in a city with lots of people and noise, birds in great variety are often audible, especially in the morning.

Bring a tarp or blanket outside so kids can lie on their backs, close their eyes, and listen. If no birds are singing during workshop time, have the group search for birds: flying, sitting, carrying nest material, alone, in pairs, in a flock.

An active bird feeder at the school comes in very handy.

Extensions
From Ranger Rick's Birds! Birds! Birds! Try: “Musical Names” where students make up a call or song that goes with their own name, or “Create a Bird” where students draw imaginary birds. They can make up a song and a name for their bird and introduce it to the class. The other children should try to mimic the song.

Learning Goals

Concepts/Ideas

• Each kind of bird has a unique song and call that it sings to attract a mate, establish territory, warn others of danger, and communicate about where food is located.
• The time of year when birds sing is related to their reproductive cycle, which in turn is timed to coincide with the maximum food supply for the offspring.
• Daily bird song cycles vary. Most birds sing early in the morning, triggered by the amount of available light and how well they can see the type of food they prefer.
• Recognizing bird songs can help us identify what birds inhabit an area.

Vocabulary: cycle, reproducing, offspring, passerines, available light, seedeater, hole nester, territory, syrinx, bird song, bird call (definitions)

Skills

• Actively listening to learn reasons why birds sing.
• Listening to and comparing the songs of some common birds.
• Role-playing to understand the variations in daily song cycles of different birds and discussing the relationship of singing time to light and food availability.
• Experiencing through role-play how birds use song to attract mates and communicate with others of their own kind.
• Surveying and taking notes outdoors of the kinds of songs heard in different habitats and the places from which birds choose to sing.

Grade Expectations:
Grades PK-K (S30, S38) Birds are living animals. Each kind of bird sings its song to communicate with other birds of its kind.

Grades 1-2 (S30, S38) Bird song is a means of communication that enables birds to attract a mate, establish territory, warn others of danger, and tell about where food is located. Each kind of songbird has a unique song.

Grades 3-4 (S30, 38) The time of year when birds sing is related to mating and reproductive cycle. The time of day birds sing is triggered by light and food availability.

Grades 5-6 (S38) Recognizing and differentiating bird songs can help to identify the kind of birds that inhabit a particular area.

Return to March or April ELF.