Science Sunday: Bird Migration activity

Back when I was dating Jeff I gave him a bumper sticker that said, “Caution: Migratory life form with a tropism for bookstores.”

Yes, it had way too many big words, but it amused both of us.

 Making bird migration relevant to the kids

I briefly mentioned this one a few weeks ago, but since hadn’t had a chance to post about it, well now I am.

We read all about how birds migrate in fall and spring to follow the weather (that is much simplified, but I’m feeling lazy right now).  In the fall many birds will travel South, and go to warmer climates.  Beforehand they have to stock up and eat a lot.  So, we did just that before setting out on our bird migration.

 

When they get there the birds are very hungry, because many of them do not stop to eat along the way.  So, we stopped and ate our lunch.  We had to watch out for any hungry predators who might try to steal our lunch (Mac was hungry too).

 

We spent the “winter” at the park, which probably isn’t really South of us, more of West.  They prepared places to sleep, and went about their normal park like activities.

 

Then, we headed back North, after eating one more snack.  It requires a lot of snacks to migrate.

 

It also requires sticks to be swords and guns…..

 

Afterwards as we walked back and they were super duper tired, we talked about how hard it is to migrate.  It takes a lot of energy and everyone was tired and wanting to ride in the wagon.  But, to truly get the effect, I wanted them to understand how hard it is and so they walked.

 

Yet another example of how mean a Mom I am.  Truly mean.  I’m told this on a regular basis by my kids when I make them do hard manual labor, like cleaning their rooms.

And, if you want to see how someone else talked about migration head over to Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns, because right as we learned about it Anna was talking all about it too.