Beak Bonanza

Facilitator prep: Stations should be set up prior to youth arrival.

Literacy Connection:  Great books to get youth excited about birds!  (available on Amazon).

• Have You Seen Birds? By Joanne Oppenheim

• Unbeatable Beaks by Stephen Swinburne

• How and Why Birds Use Their Bills by Elaine Pascoe

Materials

• Introduction materials: fork, knife, spoon, bowl of soup, cooked spaghetti, uncut pizza (pictures of food items will work if you do not have the ability of the actual food items), chart paper or white board, permanent marker or dry erase marker

• Station 1: empty plastic bottle with screw top cap with a hole large enough for pipette, construction paper, water, food coloring, pipette, photo of each bird

• Station 2: pan of sand or soil (such as an aluminum baking dish), rubber worms, tweezers, photo of each bird

• Station 3: pan of water, plastic fish, cup or scoop, photo of each bird

• Station 4: pan of water, leaves, small strainer, photo of each bird

• Station 5: play clay wrapped around sticks, scissors, photo of each bird

**Make sure there are enough tools for each child at each station.

DOWNLOAD: Photos of Birds for Activity

Room:  This activity is most ideally set up indoors on table tops so each station can be separated, however you it can take place in any setting. This activity works best in small groups for 2 youth. The number of each type of tool at each station should be equivalent to the number of youth in each group so youth can have equal access to each tool. Small groups can rotate through the different stations every 5 minutes.

Content:  Bird beaks or bills are a bird's mouth and nose parts. Each bird has a different shaped beak or bill specialized for the type of food they eat. Carnivorous birds have sharper beaks than herbivorous birds, designed for tearing. Waterfowl have built in straining systems to drain their bills of water but keep food in.

Inquiry: Your primary goal as facilitator is to encourage youth to explore and talk about bird beaks.  You can prompt those discussions with questions like the following:

• Which tool works best at this station?

• Which bird do you think this tool represents?

• Why do you think that?

• Why do you think their beak is designed this way?

• What do you think this tells you about where this bird lives?

• What other kinds of tools do we use that we could compare with bird beaks?

Facilitator Checklist for Preparation:

• Organization: I practiced the activity/technology, prepared materials/extras/place to record youth ideas, completed an activity (including timings).

• Materials:  Materials are appropriate for teaching the learning goals; youth will be able to use them and will think they are appealing.

• Space Utilization:  The space is set up appropriately for the activity and there will be no safety issues or distractions.

• Relevance:  I have researched why the content matters to youth’s everyday lives.

• Content Learning:  I have become familiar with the content.

• Inquiry:  I have become familiar with how authentic, age-appropriate inquiry practices look in this activity.