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
I love your bird feeders and the bird feeder that you attached to the window. I bet the students are so excited to check their feeder and see if any birds have visited it. That's too bad that birds are not visiting the feeders. I live in Southern California and I fill up my large feeder and it is empty within two days! I also like how you are using the different colored feeders to see if the birds will eat out of a particular color more often. I hope the birds come soon and eat lots of the bird seed. I hope the weather improves there so the birds come north.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great inquiry lesson, especially how you incorporated an aspect of your school's environment. I love to do this inquiry lesson, so we could have our students compare data!
ReplyDeleteDiana,
ReplyDeleteI would have enjoyed being in your classroom for this lesson/activity. I am sure this really impacted the student's learning, and what a great way to demonstrate science inquiry incorporating the birdfeeders. Also, what a great idea attaching a bird feeder to the window of the classroom! Our class has been entrenched in a weather and water unit and we have attached weather condition instruments (thermometer, anemometer, barometer, etc.) to the window as well for the students to get current weather condition information without stepping outdoors, the kids enjoy them.
Your pictures gave us a great sense of what was happening in the classroom, thanks for sharing!