Resources

Web Sites We Like

School Web Pages

Cool School Bird Investigations: Beecher Road School Bluebird Project
Elementary school students describe their bluebird project and share poetry, nest box plans, and highlights of bluebird history.

Audubon Adventures in Action
At the Manor School in Fairfax, California, the Audubon Society's classroom nature program helped students become Earth stewards and save the lives of swallow nestlings.

Snowy Owl Portraits and Owl Calls
At the Waddell Schoolyard Habitat Web site you can v
isit a gallery of portraits of a visiting snowy owl. These are accompanied by audio recordings of calls of a variety of other types of owls.

Other Sites

Classroom FeederWatch
This multidisciplinary online project involves students in thinking and acting like scientists as they investigate birds in their region and then publish their results. We think this is one of the best projects of its kind!

Operation Ruby Throat: The Hummingbird Project
Another exemplary project, Operation Ruby Throat engages students internationally in collaborating to study and share data on the behaviors of ruby-throated hummingbirds.

Open Directory Project: Birds
A great launching pad of Web resources on various species, bird calls, biology, and behavior. Many of the links are to kid-focused sites.

Zoom Birds: All About Birds
A colorful, informative, child-oriented site of general bird facts and answers to questions such as, "Do birds have knees?" and "Why can birds perch on power lines?"

American Birding Association Youth Activities
For those students especially captivated by our avian allies, the ABA offers camps, birding contests, youth birding teams, and a community of like-minded birdwatchers and conservationists.

Bird Books and Guide

Birds, Birds, Birds
Yet another exemplary resource from the National Wildlife Federation (available through our online Store). Through indoor and outdoor activities, youngsters explore compelling questions: What makes a bird a bird? How do birds affect our lives and how do we affect theirs? What is it like to fly?



Inquiry at the Window

This inspiring teachers' resource book is a story of an elementary classroom's yearlong study of birds. But it is also the story of children looking closely at their world, raising questions, confronting scientific problems, and becoming empowered by the fruits of their own efforts.




Bird Fandex

This kid-friendly bird identifier has lovely close-up photographs that make it a snap to identify 46 North American species. Accompanying information includes details on each bird's habitat, range, and diet, nests and eggs, and conservation status.


Copyright© 2002 National Gardening Association
Growing Ideas Classroom Projects is a benefit for NGA's Members

 


Contents

Pg. 1: Building Bird Feeders

Background

Introduction and Materials

Milk Carton Feeder

Hummingbird Feeder

Platform, Suet, and
Other Feeders


Favorite Foods
and Feeders


Pg. 2: Curriculum Connections

Cultivating Keen Observers


Avian Inquiries:
Focus on Food

Bird-Friendly Schoolyard

Speaking of Beaks

More Clever Adaptations

Other Bird-Inspired Activities


Pg. 3: Resources

Web Sites We Like

Bird Books & Guide


Related Articles

For the Birds

Gardens to Entice
Feathered Friends

Avian Allure

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