Activity Introduction

Activity details: In this activity the class is asked to look specifically at flying birds, and to use the checklist to observe a range of different flying birds and types of bird flight.

Key lessons and understandings of activity: This activity has been designed to heighten your class’ awareness of birds and the variety that exist even within your schoolyard or local park. Children will also be introduced to some of the basic features of bird biology and ecology. This activity has been adapted from I Love Dirt.*

Australian Curriculum Mapping

Foundation Science


Module: Biodiversity

Syllabus OutcomesSTe-4WS

Year levels: Foundation

Indoor or outdoor activity: Outdoor

Duration of activity: 30 mins

Learning areas addressed: Science

Keywords: Birds, birdwatching, behaviour, checklist, foundation



* I Love Dirt, Jennifer Ward, 2008, Trumpeter Books, Massachusetts.


Teacher Worksheet

Activity details

One of the main reasons people find birds so amazing is that they can fly, something we’re sure that most of your class would like to be able to do as well. How do birds do it? Well of course there are the wings. And then there are the bones full of air holes that mean the bird’s body is light enough to be airborne. Our bones - on the other hand - are solid, with no air holes, meaning that even the smallest of small babies would be too heavy to fly, even if they did have wings.


Take your class outside to a place where you know there are birds - it can be the schoolyard or the local park, anywhere with a range of trees, shrubs and open spaces. Ask you class to use their eagle eyes to look for items on the checklist. If you have access to an iPad or device your students can digitally fill in the checklist. 

Watching bird’s fly is a wonderful thing to do with children: watch them duck and weave and swoop and glide. Imagine how the world must look from wh

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Student Worksheet


Use your eagle eye to spot the different birds from the list below. 

A bird that flaps its wings when it flies


A bird that doesn’t flap its wings and just soars instead


A bird flying on its own


A group (flock) of birds flying together


A bird catching some insects


If you’re near water, a bird that is fishing


Where are birds flying? Are they soaring high in the sky? Are they making short tips between trees or buildings? Or are they making short hops between branches in the same tree? Or are they walking around on the ground or in the trees?


How well do the birds land? Do they land smoothly or do they seem to crash?


Do they make any noises when they take off?

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