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ORNITHOLOGY, THE STUDY OF BIRDS
What will we be learning?
What will we be learning?
We have begun our exploration into the world of birds! In this unit, second graders will study the many facets of birds. The students will investigate bird characteristics and anatomy. Adaptations of beaks and feet will help students differentiate between species. Feather structure will be examined by using microscopes, and students will be required to identify 50 species of local birds based on their attributes. Creativity and application will come into play as students “discover” a new bird species.
Bird Anatomy Test
After we compared birds to mammals and reptiles and learned the 3 main attributes that make a bird a bird (feathers, hollow bones, and hard-shelled eggs), we began our exploration of bird anatomy. Students brought home study packets to practice identifying the anatomical parts of a bird. Below are several resources to help them study.
Bird Anatomy vocab, 2024.docxHome Bird Anatomy handout.docx
1st Quarter
Social Emotional -Arrogance vs. Humility; Growth Mindset
Thinking Skills-Convergent, Divergent, Visual, Evaluative
2nd Quarter
Middle Ages and Robin Hood
3rd and 4th Quarters
Ornithology
Taking the Conversation Home
Taking the Conversation Home
Thinking Skills Unit
Thinking Skills Unit
CONVERGENT THINKING
Convergent thinking is used to solve problems with one right answer. Students use facts to help them come to correct conclusions.
VISUAL THINKING
Visual thinking is using what you see as clues or information to solve problems. Details like shape, size, color, and position matter!
DIVERGENT THINKING
Divergent thinking is thinking outside the box in many different ways. We brainstorm a LOT, and we do not judge our ideas in this stage.
EVALUATIVE THINKING
Evaluative thinking is judging solutions based on specific, measurable criteria.
Taking the Conversation Home
Taking the Conversation Home
Here are a few convergent thinking or lateral thinking puzzles:
A man pushed his car. He stopped when he reached a hotel at which point he knew he was bankrupt. Why?
There are six eggs in a basket. Six people each take one of the eggs. How can it be that there is still one egg left in the basket?
Five pieces of coal, a carrot and a scarf are lying on the lawn. Nobody put them on the lawn but there is a perfectly logical reason why they are there. What is it?
A man is driving on a sunny day when suddenly it starts to rain extremely hard. A few minutes later the rain stops, instead a gusty wind picks up. Very quickly it is so windy that the car starts to shake due to the hurricane force winds. Just as quickly, the wind drops completely away and the man was able to drive safely home. What’s going on with the weather?
Try these with your kids, and check the bottom of this page for answers!
Work on visual thinking with your child in these ways:
Work on jigsaw puzzles at home!
Try out Rebus puzzles like these.
Play games like Qbitz, IZZI, and tangrams!
Practice divergent thinking in these fun ways:
Encourage silly, out-of-the-box ideas.
Find shapes in other shapes, like cloud watching.
Work together to make a Rube Goldberg Machine at home!
Tell circle stories while in the car. (One person shares the first sentence of a silly story, then the next person shares the next sentence, and so on!)
Play games like Scattegories and Telestrations.
Practice evaluative thinking in these fun ways:
Play "Soup, Salad, or Sandwich." This is a very simple game where you must use evaluative thinking to decide if a food is closest to a soup, a salad, or a sandwich. (Hint: With Thanksgiving coming up, it can be much more fun to debate whether an ice cream sundae is a soup than it is to debate politics with your family at the dinner table!)
When making decisions for your family like where to go for a trip or what to have for dinner, talk about the criteria that you are judging ideas based on. (E.g. the nutrition of the meal, the cost of ingredients, etc.)
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Stay tuned!
Convergent/Lateral Thinking puzzle answers:
He's playing Monopoly.
The last person to take an egg takes the basket, too.
Someone was building a snowman, and then it melted.
No weird weather here! The man drove through a carwash.
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