Special Feature Lesson:

Help Sara Find a Drink!

Overview:
Children practice navigation skills while listening to a story about how a bird finds its way across a farm to find a drink of water.


Curriculum Focus:
• language arts

Materials:

• Help Sara Find a Drink! printout


Activity:
Review the information in More About that explains how ducks navigate during migration. Discuss the importance of landmarks. Share examples of landmarks a duck might use when flying. Tell children they can help you act out a story about a sparrow that uses landmarks to find a good place for a drink near her home. Pass out copies of the Help Sara Find a Drink! printout. Tell children you will read a story while they use the printout to follow along and mark Saraıs flight across the farm.

Help Sara Find a Drink!

Sara sparrow lives in an old oak tree at Mr. Wilson's farm. She's made her nest in a hole in the tree trunk. Do you see the oak tree where Sara lives? When Sara is thirsty, she flies to the farmer's pond for a drink. But sometimes, she forgets the way. Let's help Sara find the pond. We'll tell her which landmarks to look for along the way. You can draw a line to show Sara's flight path from one landmark to the next as we call them out.

  1. Fly from your oak tree over the fence that circles the cow pasture.
  2. Keep going, right over the field of sunflowers. Aren't they pretty?
  3. Fly over the big barn.
  4. Take a rest in the garden. The corn is getting tall!
  5. Head on over to Mr. Wilson's house. Don't bump into the chimney!
  6. Fly through the yard. The clothes on the line look like theyıre dancing. Don't get too close to that barking dog!
  7. Take a quick turn over the old tractor. The pond is close now!
  8. Head straight down to the pond.

Get a nice cold drink of water, Sara. Good flying! Once you have finished the story, have children hold up their printouts. Do all the printouts show the same flight path? If not, review the story once again.

Extension Idea :
Talk about landmarks in your area that might catch the eye of a passing bird overhead. Do you have any tall buildings or bodies of water or rolling hills, for example?