We began a unit on birdwatching today.  We're working on some pages in our Animals Around the World notebook with the our friends, the Veals.  Today was our first day.

We began by reading this sweet little book.  Sort of an introduction to the idea of birdwatching.

Afterwards, we glued a birdwatching graph into our notebooks.  This will be a place for the kids to record their observations whenever they see a bird outside.  They will be able to jot dot a description of the bird, along with a note about what the bird was doing.  I'm also encouraging them to draw a picture of at least one bird a week.

Along with birdwatching, we are also spending some time learning about different birds.  Today our focus was on the American Robin.  The children learned about the markings, nests, eggs, and diet of this bird, filling out a few minit books for their notebooks.  The minit books came from Homeschool Share's Animal Studies' unit on Backyard Birds and Enchanted Learning.  After adding the minits to their notebooks, we spent some time listening to the robin's song, using the CD from the book, Music of the Birds.  This book has wonderful information about the songs of birds, and the CD has little snippets of information along with a couple of minutes of "bird music."  For example, did you know the robin's song sounds like "cheery, cheerio?"

A few other books we'll be using for this unit include the following:

Other plans during our unit include making a birdhouse, a couple of different birdfeeders, and a trip to our local Nature Center, where they have a birdwatching program!  I think this will be the perfect way to wrap up our school year!