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Baby Birds

Children will learn about baby birds and create a model of a hatchling emerging from an egg.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Plastic Fork

Steps

  • Step 1

    Have a discussion about the life cycle of birds. Explain that they are warm-blooded animals that develop in eggs and then hatch when the bird is fully formed. When they emerge most birds have no feathers, and they and cannot yet see or fly. (Birds such as ducks, chickens, and other ground-nesting species do have feathers and can see.) They rely completely on their parents for food and warmth. Introduce some vocabulary words and discuss the empathy children feel for these newborn birds. As hatchlings develop feathers and begin to learn how to fly they are called fledglings. A mother bird often lays several eggs at a time; this group of eggs is called a clutch. When the babies hatch they're called a brood. The study of birds is called ornithology.

  • Step 2

    Have children use Model Magic to create a model of a hatchling emerging from its shell. Have them look at images for various types of eggshells associated with birds. For example, if they like robins they can make the shell out of light blue Model Magic and the baby light brown. If they want to make a chicken they can use various colors associated with their eggs, such as white, brown, green, beige, or others and use yellow for the baby chick. They can also use a plastic fork or pencil tip as modeling tools on the baby bird to create textures that represent feathers that emerge as the bird grows.

  • Step 3

    Have students present their art and discuss the kind of bird they depicted.

Standards

SCI: Design pictorial or graphic representations/models that are useful in communicating ideas. 

SCI: Describe what living organisms have in common (eating, breathing, growing, and reproducing) and distinguish them from non-living things. 

Adaptations

The class can watch a time-lapse video or real-time live cam of baby birds hatching from eggs. Eagles' nests are often filmed, which is another opportunity for children to learn about the national bird of the United States.

Have students make up a story about their baby birds. How would the bird feel upon emerging from its shell? What would it want to do? Where would it want to go?