Bird Eye Spy!

Advice & Suitability

If there is some important bit of safety advice, this could go here and/or general text about who it is suitable for etc etc. If it isn’t needed, just delete it.

Materials Required

1. Just your eyes and ears
2. Paper and drawing tools to record your findings, (optional)
3. Local bird poster to identify local birds in your area, (optional)
4. Digital device or camera (optional)

Preparation

Listen to some local bird calls to see if you can hear these again on your walk – Print the Local Bird Poster (see the attached Website for Backyard Birds) if you would like to take this with you

Method (or Ideas)

1. Take a walk in your garden or around your neighbourhood.
2. Listen carefully- can hear the birds?
3. Look carefully- can you see the birds?
4. Do you know what type of birds you can see?
5. Record the birds that you see by encouraging your child to draw them
6. Create a simple graph to record how many different birds you saw and count the tallies

Facilitation Tips – What To Say

• Can you hear any birds?
• Can you see any birds?
• What do they sound like?
• What do they look like?
• What colours are they?
• Are they big or small?
• Do you know the name of that bird?
• Is that a Magpie?
• Is that a Rainbow Lorikeet?
• Talk about the different birds that you saw and their differences and similarities.

Extend the Experience

• Look at the poster on the Backyard Birds website and see if you can identify any of the birds you saw.
• Do some research about your local “Backyard Birds”- use the link below.
• Backyard Birds have a bird count each year – you might like to register to be involved in their next count.

WHO Guidelines for Physical Activity & Sedentary Behaviour

Walking around your house or neighbourhood is being physically active

Early Years Learning Framework

Outcomes

1. Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment
2. Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating
3. Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes

Principle

Principle 3: High expectations and equity. Children progress well when they, their parents and educators hold high expectations for their achievement in learning.

Practice

Practice: Intentional teaching. Intentional teaching is deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful. They use strategies such as modelling and demonstrating, open questioning, speculating, explaining, engaging in shared thinking and problem solving to extend children’s thinking and learning.