MAKE A BIRD

Goals / Objectives
- Students will be able to identify key features of birds and their habitats (feathers,
beak, lay eggs; need food, water and shelter to survive)
- Students will make up an imaginary bird and be able to identify and describe all
its key features, as well as basic facts about its habitat and how it meets its
needs
- Students will write a poem about their bird using descriptive language

Standards and Assessment Anchors

Pennsylvania ELA Standards for 1st grade:

- CC.1.2.1.F: Ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words
and phrases in a text.
- CC.1.2.1.J: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading, and being
read to, and responding to texts, including words that signal connections and
relationships between the words and phrases.
- CC.1.5.1.F: Add drawings or other visual displays when sharing aloud to clarify ideas,
thoughts, and feelings.
- CC.1.4.1.E: Choose words and phrases for effect.

NGSS Core Disciplinary Ideas

- LS1.A: Structure and Function: All organisms have external parts. Different
animals use their body parts in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect
themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water
and air.

Materials and preparation

- Chart paper
- Markers
- Arte de Pájaros / Art of Birds
- Pictures and drawings of birds and diagrams
- Blank paper
- Large lined paper
- Crayons
- Pencils

Classroom arrangement and management issues

- For the introduction, students will be on the carpet to read through some excerpts
of Arte de Pájaros. Students will return to their seats to draw their birds.
- How students will get the materials needed [Helpers will pass out the blank paper
for drawing their bird, and later again to pass out lined paper for writing their
poems]
 - Some students may worry about other students copying their ideas. In talking
about how each bird should be different, I will set a goal for each student to come
up with something unique that makes their bird special, while also being flexible
and encouraging students to differentiate their bird from other students’ and
make it unique in a small way, even if not in a dramatic way.

Plan

- Hook (15 minutes during breakfast)

- We have been reading a lot of poems about birds recently, and today I
want to share a very special book with you. This book was written by
Pablo Neruda, one of the most famous poets—he even won the Nobel
Prize, which a lot of people say is the most important prize in the world.
- Pablo Neruda was from Chile and he wrote a whole book about birds, and
then he asked his friends to make beautiful paintings of different birds as
the illustrations.
- Think back to what we have talked about recently, and what you have
noticed when listening to the different poems I have read—how is poetry
different from other kinds of writing? [collect responses]
- I will be honest—sometimes when I read poems, I am not sure I
completely understand them! Usually when I finish reading or hearing a
poem I have a LOT of questions! But that’s what I love about poetry. I
love poems because of the things they help me to imagine, and the
questions that they help me to ask.
- When you listen to these poems, don’t worry if you don’t understand it all!
Just listen for descriptive words and pay attention to what the poem
makes you feel and imagine. If it helps you can close your eyes while you
listen.
- As I read, think about: what does this poem help me to imagine?
- Read aloud [chercán, garza, golondrina, gaviota]
- [after each:] What did you imagine when you listened to the poem?
What words did you notice?

- Body
- [Hook 2] Introducing imaginary birds (10-15 minutes)
- Earlier we read some poems about birds by Pablo Neruda.
- But he didn’t only write poems about birds that exist in real life, like a
garza, golondrina, and gaviota...he also wrote poems about imaginary
birds! Birds he just made up.
- Do you remember any stories or poems we have heard so far about
birds that were a bit different than the birds we can see in real life?
[collect responses. Including: Talking birds in Virginia Hamilton book; ???]
 - Let’s look at some pictures and read some poems about these imaginary
birds. As you listen, can the words he uses help you to imagine these
birds?
- Read aloud [ El pájaro corolario; La tiumba; El tintitrán]
- [after each:] Now turn and talk to you partner: what did the words
make you see? [collect responses]
- How was Pablo Neruda’s imaginary bird different from a real bird?
How was it the same? [collect responses]
- Introducing project (10-15 min)
- Since I know all of you have such wonderful imaginations, and since I
know we’ve all learned a whole lot about birds, I thought we should take
on a very special project: each of you will make up your own imaginary
bird!
- You’ll draw beautiful pictures of your birds, just like in Arte de Pájaros,
and then you’ll write poems—so we can make our own class book!
- But first we have to focus on doing a good job imagining.
- To make up an imaginary bird, we need to think how our bird will be
similar to other birds—and how it will be different.
- There are certain things that are true about all birds, so we need to make
sure to include these when we make up our imaginary birds too….
Otherwise they might be imaginary, but they wouldn’t necessarily be
imaginary birds. What have we learned that is true about all birds?
Remember we can look to our KWL chart to see what we know, and what
we have learned. [collect responses. Make sure we list: beaks, lay eggs,
feathers]
- What else have we learned about birds that we might want to include
when we make up our imaginary birds? [possible responses: fly, sing,
what they eat, where they live]
- So when I make up my imaginary bird, I will make sure that it has a beak,
feathers and that it lays eggs. I also want my bird to be able to sing, and
fly at least a little… and hm, I think I want it to live in the desert. So when I
draw my bird, I want to make sure I include all of that, and label it too! My
labels will describe my drawing. Remember, labels are an important text
feature to help readers understand what they are looking at.
- [model drawing on chart paper] So I am imagining a very tall, skinny
bird…. I know all birds have beaks so I have to give it a beak—and I
imagine it should have a very skinny beak so that it can reach cactus
fruits in between cactus spikes! And here I will give it a label: “skinny
beak.” I also know all birds have feathers, so I will give it nice fluffy
feathers, and I think they will be mostly purple, with white feathers on its
head. And I will draw a label to show its feathers “purple feathers” and
“white feathers.” And of course, since all birds lay eggs, I have to show
that my imaginary bird lays eggs too! I will draw some eggs in a nest—I
imagine that it builds its nest in the shadow of big desert rocks—and I’m
 imagining perfectly round eggs with purple spots. Here is my label for the
eggs “round eggs with purple spots.” And now I can imagine more things
about my bird…and here I can include things that really make my bird
special. I can imagine that its voice sounds exactly like water dripping, or
that it only flies in circles, or that it likes to share its meals with desert
lizards!
- Turn and talk with the person sitting next to you: What will make your
imaginary bird special?
- Who wants to share out what their imaginary bird will be like?
- Launching project (20 minutes)
- When you get back to your seats I want you to begin drawing your
imaginary bird. Make sure you label and describe the different parts.
- I will come around to see what you are working on—I can’t wait to learn
about your imaginary birds!
- [hand signals to return to seat]
- [call up helpers to pass out blank paper]
- [I will circulate and conference with students, asking questions to make
sure they are including the key features of birds as well as what makes
their bird special. I will ask prompting questions to remind them to
appropriately label and describe their bird drawings, taking informal notes
for formative assessment and to decide who should share with the class
when we reconvene.]
- Reconvene (5 minutes)
- I am so glad I got to see these birds that you all imagined! I will call up a
few students who labeled their birds and wrote descriptions so that I know
what makes their bird special. [call up students to share and explain]
- So tomorrow when we keep working on this, remember to make sure your
imaginary bird has all the important features that make it a bird—and also
that it is labeled with descriptions so a reader will know what makes it
special!
- Introduction, Day 2 (10-15 min)
- Today we will continue working on our book of imaginary birds. I know
some of you still have more work to do to finish drawing and labeling, but
I want to introduce the next part so that everyone can start thinking about
it, and so that those who are ready can get started.
- We have been writing poems as a class together recently. What have
you learned about writing poems? [collect responses. Ex: sometimes
they rhyme, short lines, descriptive words]
- When we are writing poems about our birds we are going to focus on
descriptive language—language that will help our readers to imagine.
- When we want to help our readers to imagine, it is important to be
specific. Instead of trying to describe the whole bird at once, describe
different details about the bird. What different details about the bird
 could we describe? [beak, feathers, eggs, wings, legs, voice, how it
flies, how it eats, where it lives]
- What are some words we could use to describe [X] part of the bird?
[collect responses; repeat for a few different bird parts listed in previous
section].
- So when you write your poem, make sure you choose words that will
really help your reader to imagine different details.
- Launching project (20 minutes)
- When you get back to your seats I want you to start writing your poem.
- I will come around to see what you are working on—I can’t wait to read
your poems!
- [hand signals to return to seat]
- [call up helpers to pass out blank paper]
- [I will circulate and conference with students, asking questions to make
sure they are describing details about their birds. I will ask prompting
questions to remind them about poems we have read and written as a
class and how they could use some of those ideas to develop their own
poems, taking informal notes for formative assessment and to decide who
should share with the class when we reconvene next time.]
- Reconvene (5 minutes)
- I am so glad I got to read poems about these birds that you all imagined!
Does anybody want to share their poem so that we can all imagine
your bird together? [call up students to share and talk about their
poems]
- We will have a little more time to finish up our drawings and poems and
make any last revisions, and then I will collect them all so that we can
make our own book of birds, like Arte de Pájaros!

Assessment of goals/objectives listed above

- Informal anecdotal notes of what students say during discussions, what I observe
while circulating the room
- Student artifacts to collect: drawing with labels, poem
- Analyze student artifacts based on whether and how they: identified and labeled
key features of a bird and how their bird was unique; used descriptive language
in their poem to describe specific details about their bird.

Anticipating students’ responses and possible responses

- Management issues: It is likely that some students may worry about other
students copying their ideas. In talking about how each bird should be different, I
will set a goal for each student to come up with something unique that makes
their bird special. That said, I will leave room for flexibility so that I can show how
two birds that seem largely similar (two students who both want their birds to
have rainbow wings) can be unique in other ways (I will prompt students to
 differentiate other things about their birds, like what they eat, where they live,
what their beaks are like etc).
- Response to content of the lesson: If a student wants to know if they can focus
on a real-life bird instead of making up an imaginary bird, I will say that they can,
but that they will have to make sure their drawings and labels show the bird as it
really exists, and will prompt students to refer to class materials to research their
bird and ensure that they are not “making up” things about a real bird.

Accomodations
- For students who may find the material too challenging:
- I will have drawings, pictures, and diagrams of birds printed out to
circulate among the students so that they can refer to a picture if they
need inspiration or a reference point to start drawing.
- I will conference with individual students who may need more support to
make sure that that they are including and labeling all the key features of
birds.
- For the poem, I will have a template that students can use: “Its beak is
______, its wings are _____, its eggs are _____,” to provide a little bit
more structure without denying students the chance to practice describing
their bird with descriptive language.
- Some students will not be able to write legibly, so I will work with them to
transcribe what they tell me their letters mean.
- For students who may need greater challenge and/or finish early:
- I will encourage them to make up more extra information about the bird
(describe its behaviors, more details about its habitat) and add to their
illustrations accordingly.
- Similarly, their poems can be expanded to describe more details about
the bird.
- Depending on what I know about students already, and gauging their
interest, I may encourage certain students to try to incorporate rhyme into
their poems.