We began our structured inquiry lesson with a KWL chart. Our KWL chart that shows what my students know about birds, what they wanted to know about birds, and what they learned about birds during our week long structured inquiry lesson. My students knew more about birds and identifying them than I anticipated. They were eager to find birds around our school and loved reading about them.
A bird that visited out bird feeder attached to our classroom window.
I attached a bird feeder to the outside of our classroom window so that my students can continue to observe birds up close.
Two students checking their bird feeders.
My students were excited check their bird feeders each day. They wanted to see if birds had visited their bird feeder.
Weighing a bird feeder
Each day we weighed our bird feeders to see if any birds had visited them.
A student recording observations about birds in her journal.
My students recorded their observations daily to keep track of how much their feeders weighed. They also drew pictures of the birds they saw around the school yard and attempted to identify them.
A red bird feeder
Each of my students worked with a partner to design a bird feeder. We wanted to see if the color of the bird feeder made a difference as to how often birds visited it. There were yellow, orange, purple, green, blue, and red bird feeders. During our week long inquiry, we discovered that no birds visited our feeders. It has been extremely windy and rainy in Indiana. We decided to keep our feeders up around the school to see if the birds find them. We are hoping to find the answer to our inquiry question very soon. I'll keep you posted...
http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles
