English/Language Arts
Explore Writing seeds
Author Cobb has written an entire Minute with instructions on how to figure out what to write about next. Use this Minute as a warm-up to having students brainstorm ideas for their next writing piece. While we don’t want them approaching strangers, there are plenty of people that kids know - family, teachers, principles, school staff, other students, etc. - that they can interview when on the hunt for writing topics.
Explore the Interview
Have students do a close read of this Minute to tease out the kinds of questions that Author Cobb asked, then present the students with a scenario and have them work in table groups to develop interview questions. Compare the questions from each table and work toward consensus of the best questions to ask. Author Cobb did more research after her initial interview with the bird owner. Ask students where they think they may go to do more research.
STEM
Explore adaptations
The bird’s owner tells Author Cobb that this bird has a “nut-cracker” beak. Use this description to have kids investigate the connection between environment, diet and beak shape in birds. Ask them to organize their information in charts, graphs or infographics. Have students draw conclusions from their discoveries. Have them think about other physical attributes that may differ depending on the environmental characteristics. Have them talk about what might happen to native animals if an environment undergoes a significant change. This macaw, the owner informs us, is a vegetarian. Are all birds vegetarian? Why might some be and others not be?
Explore biology - birds
Investigate the biology of birds. What features are unique to this class of animals? How do their physical characteristics help them to survive? Birds are descendants of dinosaurs and what kid doesn’t want to learn more about dinosaurs? Have students explore the path from dinosaur to birds..
Explore biomes - rainforest
Use this Minute as a jumpstart to learning about birds of the rainforest. What other birds live in a rainforest? What kinds of birds are found in other biomes? Have students create an infographic in your classroom adding birds to biomes. Once you have enough visual data, have your students start doing some comparisons. How are the birds of a biome alike? How are they different? How do they compare to birds of different biomes? Get their critical thinking engines going!
Research Skills
Explore experts as resources
We want our students to think beyond a simple google search when hunting for information. And books are great, but sometimes there are better places to investigate things than between the pages. Author Cobb heads to “Bird Jungle” to get some more answers. Why? Because these people specialize in what she is investigating. Help your students develop a list of “expert’ contacts for different subjects. Ask them to think about who the experts would be, and how we might access them? Show them University sites, museum sites, and government sites, highlighting the “contact me” links that can almost always be found. Encourage them to speak to their librarians about how to find experts, for librarians are the experts in how to find good resources.
Explore Writing seeds
Author Cobb has written an entire Minute with instructions on how to figure out what to write about next. Use this Minute as a warm-up to having students brainstorm ideas for their next writing piece. While we don’t want them approaching strangers, there are plenty of people that kids know - family, teachers, principles, school staff, other students, etc. - that they can interview when on the hunt for writing topics.
Explore the Interview
Have students do a close read of this Minute to tease out the kinds of questions that Author Cobb asked, then present the students with a scenario and have them work in table groups to develop interview questions. Compare the questions from each table and work toward consensus of the best questions to ask. Author Cobb did more research after her initial interview with the bird owner. Ask students where they think they may go to do more research.
STEM
Explore adaptations
The bird’s owner tells Author Cobb that this bird has a “nut-cracker” beak. Use this description to have kids investigate the connection between environment, diet and beak shape in birds. Ask them to organize their information in charts, graphs or infographics. Have students draw conclusions from their discoveries. Have them think about other physical attributes that may differ depending on the environmental characteristics. Have them talk about what might happen to native animals if an environment undergoes a significant change. This macaw, the owner informs us, is a vegetarian. Are all birds vegetarian? Why might some be and others not be?
Explore biology - birds
Investigate the biology of birds. What features are unique to this class of animals? How do their physical characteristics help them to survive? Birds are descendants of dinosaurs and what kid doesn’t want to learn more about dinosaurs? Have students explore the path from dinosaur to birds..
Explore biomes - rainforest
Use this Minute as a jumpstart to learning about birds of the rainforest. What other birds live in a rainforest? What kinds of birds are found in other biomes? Have students create an infographic in your classroom adding birds to biomes. Once you have enough visual data, have your students start doing some comparisons. How are the birds of a biome alike? How are they different? How do they compare to birds of different biomes? Get their critical thinking engines going!
Research Skills
Explore experts as resources
We want our students to think beyond a simple google search when hunting for information. And books are great, but sometimes there are better places to investigate things than between the pages. Author Cobb heads to “Bird Jungle” to get some more answers. Why? Because these people specialize in what she is investigating. Help your students develop a list of “expert’ contacts for different subjects. Ask them to think about who the experts would be, and how we might access them? Show them University sites, museum sites, and government sites, highlighting the “contact me” links that can almost always be found. Encourage them to speak to their librarians about how to find experts, for librarians are the experts in how to find good resources.
© Karen Sterling, 2017 - May be used for educational purposes without written permission