Unit Plan
Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Life In A Nest: Exploring Life Cycles With Bird Cams

For Students 6th - 12th
Why read about it when you can watch it happen? Bird cams make it possible for learners to experience the life cycle of a bird in real time! An engaging set of lessons provides activities to connect their learning to bird cam...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Life-Cycle Sleuth

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students analyze an animal's life cycle and behaviors, and examine what animals need to stay alive and reproduce. They develop theories and hypotheses about the reasons for migrations, using the Journey North online project.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Growing Penguins

For Teachers 4th - 8th
A collection of photos and accompanying descriptions describing the life cycle of an Adelie penguin is the highlight of this resource. Working in groups, polar explorers match the descriptions to the pictures and create a timeline. An...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bringing Up Birdy

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Students explore biology by creating diagrams of animal life cycles. In this baby bird lesson, students view video clips of birds being born from incubation to flying on their own. Students utilize the Internet to research birds and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Animals

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders define and describe the characteristics of a mammal and a mammal's importance to man. They also describe the life cycle of a frog and compare and contrast a larva and an adult frog. Finally, 2nd graders study and explain...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Week 8 - Sea Life

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Using a magnifier, mini marine biologists examine the barbules of a bird feather. They swirl the it into a mixture of oil and water and then re-examine the feather. After the activity, discuss how the oily feathers pose a problem to...
Unit Plan
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Core Knowledge Foundation

A Time for All Seasons - Summer

For Teachers 1st - 3rd Standards
The sun is shining and the birds are singing, what better time to teach young learners about the fun season of summer. In this week-long science series, children learn how the rotation and orbit of the earth influence...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating a Food Web

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students investigate hunters and prey by creating a food web.  In this animal life instructional activity, students investigate a single organism in preparation for a field trip, discovering its diet and habitat.  Students each...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Web Of Life - Overlapping Food Chains

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students perform an activity in which they discover what happens when food chains overlap in an ecosystem and discover the three components of a food web.
Activity
PBS

Season Seeking

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
It's a time of change. A hands-on activity engages young scientists in a lesson highlighting the change of seasons. They brainstorm indicators of season changes in nature and then look for them. Next, they record observations in a field...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Home Sweet Home

For Teachers K - 4th
Young scholars examine the animals that live in trees. They identify their sounds, footprints and droppings. They draw pictures of the animals as well.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making Weather-Tracking Tools

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students build tools to help track the weather. For this weather lesson, students follow directions to build a rain gauge, barometer and hair hygrometer.