Birds Lesson Plan: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes

Click to open and customize your own copy of the Birds Lesson Plan. 

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Birds, and supports the standard that birds, and all animals, have internal and external structures that support the survival and reproduction of their species. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Organize students into small groups and ask them to answer and discuss the following questions:

• What are some things that all birds have in common?
• Why do you think birds fly south for the winter?
• What are some predators of birds?

After students have had time to discuss in their small groups, bring the class together and have students share what they came up with to the whole class.

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read aloud the description on the Birds topic page.
• Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
• Assign Related Reading and have students read one of the two articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign Birds Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about birds while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

• Make-a-Movie: Choose one type of bird adaptation featured in the movie and produce a video showing how this adaptation helps solve a problem.
• Make-a-Map: Make a map identifying bird adaptations and how they help with survival.
• Creative Coding: Code a digital museum exhibit featuring the various internal or external bird adaptations.
• Primary Source Activity: Analyze the images of the fossils and cite evidence to answer the accompanying questions.

More to Explore 

All About Bird Anatomy: In this game, students learn about anatomy by building a bird from the inside out. 

Flap to the Future: Start as a running dinosaur and avoid predators to earn new adaptations that let you fly like a bird in this interactive game. 

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas. 
• Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.