Description
New Zealand’s birds…
There’s a lot more to Aotearoa’s bird life than the world famous kiwi! This booklet is packed full of interesting information about our bird life – perfect for use alongside your current bird inquiry or as an early finishers activity book. It contains a wide variety of activities designed to get your students thinking, doing and talking about our amazing birds…
Included: 48 page NZ Bird Booklet ~ page topics include:
• A brief timeline of our bird history (from 85 million years ago to the present!)
• What’s THAT bird? The moa is the most famous of all our extinct birds, but there are many other fascinating birds that will never be seen again….
• I read……. Share your top 3 most interesting facts from your favourite non-fiction native bird book.
• Things to think about: E.g. “One of the biggest killers of our birds are pets (cats & dogs)… Some people feel that you shouldn’t own a cat unless they remain inside your house at all times. What do you think? How could we prevent pets killing our native birds?” “What should you do if you see a nest with eggs or baby birds on the ground under a tree?”
• Māori bird words! Many of our native birds have beautiful Māori names – identify the Māori words and then find the alternative English words.
• Extinct birds – what’s the dictionary meaning of the word extinct?
• Research the amazing rediscovery of the Takahe after its near extinction. Use the boxes to retell the story using little cartoon pictures.
• Can/Has/Is graphic organiser (e.g. A kiwi CAN smell through nostrils on the end of its beak. A kiwi HAS very small wings. A kiwi IS an endangered bird unique to Aotearoa.)
• Add pictures to complete the life cycle diagram of a native bird of your choice.
• 10 native bird themed challenges (e.g. How many different birds can you count on your walk to school? Find and read some Māori myths and legends that contain birds as part of the story. E-mail a bird expert with some questions about native birds (e.g. your local bird rescue centre, vet or Department of Conservation)
• Something’s a foot! Use your powers of observation and research skills to sketch 4 different bird foot prints.
• A selection on NZ bird themed colouring pages.
• A native bird themed acrostic poem template.
• Alphabet challenge – record a bird name for every latter of the alphabet.
• Use a magnifying glass to carefully study the details in a feather. What bird did it come from? Sketch what you can see.
• Use the native bird information contained on the page to correctly name and label the pie graph.
• Go on a ‘birds nest spotting walk.’ Draw a secret map to show the location of the birds’ nests.
• NZ bird themed word find (plus answers)
• 6 native bird themed true or false questions (plus answers)
• Let’s get eggy! Research then colour the birds eggs to match our native eggs.
• Our native bird predators – research then add key words to the table to show your understanding of the damage that the predators cause to our bird life.
• Why does NZ have so many nocturnal birds?
• A selection of blank bird themed writing pages.
• A blank page to sketch or list the birds that below to the ‘terrestrial group’ (also ‘sea & shore birds’ and ‘wetland & river birds’)
• An explanation and the differences between ‘native birds’, ‘endemic birds’ and ‘introduced birds.’
• NZ bird facts in numbers e.g. How many species of moa were there? Of 100 Kiwi chicks born in the wild, how many will survive to adulthood? How many voice boxes does a tui have?
• I spy with my little eye…. Add to the tally graph to record the birds you can see and hear in the space of 10 minutes
• Did you know…..(a page of interesting bird facts)
• Ewww! Poo!! What’s the important connection between some of our trees and the role that birds and bird poo plays?
• Record some key words about the topic of our native birds
• Add the vowels to complete the NZ bird themed words
• Silly bird jokes!
• Use the Zoom function on a digital camera to get a really good close up of a bird, an egg, a feather or nest. Can you get the picture in focus?
• Colour me – add different colours to the palette to match the colours in a bird of your choice
• A selection of Māori bird themed whakatauki (proverbs)
• Birds feature on every NZ bank note, as well as several of our coins. Research and sketch the birds that are found on our $ notes and record.
• Bird song! Listen to some of our bird songs on line. How would you spell those sounds? Listen and record.
• Find and sketch (and outdoor hunt)
• Plant for the birds – what plants and trees are important for the birds in your area?
• A page of QR codes & clickable links that will take you directly to relevant nz bird themed sites.
