START HERE for an overview of all the BirdWords Activities and downloads of printable pdf booklets with all the activities collated.
Students invent names for unfamiliar birds, to explore common naming features. They compare that with names of local birds to see what that tells us about how we see them.
Students discuss bird sounds then, according to level, knowledge, and local expressions, explore a) warblish (phrases birds are “saying”), bird-specific onomatopoeia (eg “cock-a-doodle-do), or general vocabulary for bird sounds (eg “chirrup”).
Students explore bird idioms in the language through a bingo game then discuss what that tells us about how we see the different birds.
Students look at where their local swallows are going next and send postcards to another school or group on the migration route.
Students group cards of birds as many different ways as they can think of, to explore the different options for classification / taxonomy.
