Bird Beak Science

Hi –
This week in Science, in honor of the letter ‘B,’ we learned about bird beaks.

First, we did the following activity:

We sat in groups of 4-5 around plates. Everyone got an empty blue container and a tool (either a spoon, clothespin, tweezers or tongs).

Then we had to use our tools to pick up sponges, straws, packing peanuts, and rocks off of the plates and put them in our containers. No hands allowed!

When we had picked everything off the plates,

we sorted our collected items onto graphing mats:

It turned out that the children with the tweezers or the tongs picked up the greatest number of items and the children who had the clothespins and spoons picked up the fewest.

Next, we read a book about beaks that explained that different types of birds have different types of beaks that are good for eating different types of food.

We tried making our arms into flamingo heads. They eat with their beaks upside-down!

We also made our fingers into crossbeak bills. They use their beaks to pry open pinecones.

Then, everyone got a picture of a bird.

We looked carefully at the beaks on our birds.

We matched the pictures with the type of food the birds eat.

They are all birds, but they have very different beaks to eat very different things!

Last, we reviewed our first activity – and matched our beaks with the ones in the pictures. (spoon = spoonbill, etc.)

The shape of each tool made it easier or more difficult to pick up each type of object – just like the shape of a bird’s beak makes it easier or more difficult to pick up different types of food.

Great job everybody!

See you next week,

Elaine