The Nesting Cycle

This year we are part of a pilot program for teachers created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Teachers all over the country are participating and when I learned about it from our local science center I decided to see of homeschoolers could give it a whirl. Sure enough we were accepted and I attended a day long seminar to get to know the curriculum and learn how it is designed to work. It is designed to get kids connected through Wiki pages by sharing what they learn about birds through this curriculum. I have to do 7 of the 11 lessons to complete the program and we'll get some birding goodies for trying it out. We are slowly working on them and this particular day we were learning about the nesting cycle.

We've had an extraordinary fall (after September ended) and we've had some really gorgeous days to enjoy. Such a treat! To do the nesting cycle lesson I thought it would be a terrific idea to take a walk at the Lab of Ornithology and play the game. So, we packed up and hit the trail. At one point we stopped to play the game which is sort of a "Red Light, Green Light" game where there are four birds and various things happen to them each round. By the end, not so many birds are left. It was a great way to learn all the challenges birds face as they return from migration in the spring.

First, we stopped for the kids to fill out a pretest to see what they already knew.

It's exciting to see J6 read things on his own!

I'm a bird and I'm reading the game cards! We had lots of passers by while playing- it was nearly 70 degrees on this early November day!

We have been enjoying this program a lot and I'm hopeful that once the pilot is over, they will share details about the curriculum on their website so that others can participate. Perhaps it will become part of their Teacher section. Either way, it's fun to visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website and use it as a resource.