Education

The following materials may be reproduced for educational purposes. They are based upon the Birds of Northern California Ornithology Curriculum, written by Paul and Alysia Krafel and illustrated by Dorothy Bartlett.

Parent’s Guide to Using the Coloring Pages

Preparation: Your child can choose which bird they would like to learn more about. Click on that bird’s coloring page to open it up. Print out the four pages.

Before you give your child the four-page packet, we suggest that you introduce each bird by using the “All About Birds” website.

Go to Cornell’s All About Birds. On the “All About Birds” page, click in the search box and type in the name of the bird that you are studying. The overview page for the bird will appear.

Select ID Info. Look at each photo and video and read the captions below each and discuss with your child.

Select Sounds. Read the paragraph about the calls or songs and then listen to some of the sounds.

Coloring Page: Give a packet to your child after introducing each bird. Have them take out their crayon set. A set of 12 crayons will create pictures that are not as subtle, but they will still form an image of a bird that will allow the student to recognize a bird later. The large set of 64 crayons has the hard to duplicate bluish gray, buff, and rusty red colors. The smallest set of 8 colors is too frustrating to use. Markers don’t work well at all, and colored pencils result in pictures that look washed out.

Some colors are a mix of two colors. Explain to the students how to mix them. For example, explain what “brownish red” means as opposed to “reddish brown.” Make brownish red by coloring a space red and then add brown to it. Make reddish brown by coloring a space brown and then adding red to it.

You can print out “Parts of a Bird” and “Parts of a Wing,” to find out what part of the body a certain term refers to. With younger children, you might want to lead them through each color and show them an example on your own coloring page. Children may draw and color the appropriate habitat in the background of each picture. You can check your colors in a bird field guide or by returning to the photos on the “All About Birds” website.

Species Account: The second and third pages give basic information about the bird and explain what makes it special, as well as introducing an important concept in biology. You can read and discuss this section together. The second and third pages give basic information about the bird and explain what makes it special, as well as introducing an important concept in biology. You can read and discuss this section together.

Challenges: The last page is a list of challenges which will hopefully inspire you and your child to go outside to look for your bird and closely observe it. There is no better way to learn about birds than to go birdwatching outdoors!