Bird Activities for Kindergarten
Kindergartners are some of the most enthusiastic students in education. Their desire to learn about how the world works and explore new ideas can often be hindered by curriculum expectations, but there's always a method to teach young children by basing activities around their energy and encourage children to delve deeper into the subjects that interest them most; bird activities have the advantage of allowing kindergartners to explore the outside world while still learning important skills through creative and interesting activities.
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Bird Watching
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Bird watching can be a creative method for teaching students about different types of birds and their environments. Despite their age, kindergarten children can grasp the basic concept of bird watching, or at least observing the world outside the classroom. The children should be shown basic images of different birds that would be easy to locate in the area. For example, pigeons or robins which are different in appearance and therefore, easy to differentiate. By providing children with pictures of each bird and allowing them to explore the playground, they can try to identify and count each bird they see. Regardless of whether they produce accurate results, they will grasp the basic concepts of close observation, improve their math ability and practice writing and spelling.
Bird Pictures and Names
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Show the children pictures of birds with the bird's name beside it; explain the different features, colors and characteristics of each bird to children. By showing the children pictures of birds with the relevant name and explaining the different features, children will actively learn how to link other concepts such as color and size) to different objects and animals. After a short session of showing the class pictures of birds and various features, show a bird to the class and ask them to guess its name.
Bird pictures and naming allows children to pair names and word meanings with concrete objects -- in this case, birds; by incorporating other aspects of the bird, such as its color and size, the children will be more likely to associate these features with the name of the bird and the image.
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Bird Coloring
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Give a bird picture and a coloring book with the same bird in it to each student; the child should then copy the colors on the picture provided in the coloring book and write the name of the bird from the picture. The activity can be performed several times with the same bird colored it but lacking a name, which the child would have to pair their copied coloring picture with the correct bird name.
Bird coloring activities are a fun and creative activity to engage children in active learning; the activity includes the basic idea of coloring which children enjoy and incorporating learning into the task through words and color association. This activity can also be performed in the form of an art competition, or in teams, with a prize for the winners.
Bird Letter Association
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You can use the names of several birds to help children learn different letters, sounds and names. For example, "D" is for "Duck" and "E" is for "Eagle" can be taught to the class in alphabetical order for any bird names you can think of. The children can repeat the names in that same order, encouraging active learning of sounds, letters and parts of the alphabet. Children can also write down the names of their favorite bird names to improve their writing skills.
Bird Race
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You can provide the children with paper airplanes or teach them to make basic paper airplanes themselves. The children design a bird onto the airplane, using whatever colors or features they like and give the bird a name. The children then race the paper airplanes in the playground either as a fun game or as a competition.
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- Photo Credit kindergarten image by Andrey Kiselev from Fotolia.com
