One night, Little J hears the nocturnal Barking Owl and becomes fascinated by how the owl stays awake at night. In the morning, he is woken by the carolling of magpies and on the way to school, he is swooped by Maggie, the magpie. Miss Chen teaches the class about nocturnal animals.

Elaborate - Represent and communicate observations and ideas in a variety of ways

Theme - FAUNA (BIRDS)

Revisit the names of the birds and animals mentioned in the Little J & Big Cuz Episode 13, ‘Night Owl and Morning Maggie’– Barking Owl, Magpie, Bat, Echidna, Bilby and Wombat.

Divide the class into groups and have each group select one of the animals as their totem animal. Have each group discuss the strengths of the animal and propose alliteration adjectives to describe their group, such as ‘the outstanding owls’, ‘the magnificent magpies’, the brilliant bats’, ‘the eager echidnas’, ‘the battling bilbies’, and the ‘wonderful wombats’.

Have students select a signifying colour for their animal group. Create a chart indicating each group and the number of tasks the groups need to complete. When the tasks are completed, the group receives a dot of their group colour.

Student tasks include:

• Label a map of the school and/or local area where the habitats of local birds and animals exist.
• List four ways that people can care for the environment in order to protect the habitats of local native animals and birds.
• Draw a map (including photographs) of their backyard/s and indicate where native species (particularly birds, and other species such as reptiles, marsupials, mammals, fish, insects, etc.) may live/visit.
• Use a table to identify the sounds of local birds that visit the school/local area during different times of the day.
• Build a bird bath and/or a bird feeder for the school, and/or their backyards and document and report on the different types of birds that come to the bath/feeder.
• Find an Aboriginal Dreaming story and/or Torres Strait Islander Bipo Bipo Taim (Before Before Time) story about their selected animal totem.

Suggested resources:

• 32 homemade bird feeders to make with kids this winter
• How to build a simple bird bath to enhance your garden
• Make the perfect bird bath

Ask students to enter the information about their selected animal totem and birds into the individual student’s Science Journal.

A science journal is a record of a students’ observations, experiences and reflections. Each entry is dated and annotated by the student. Annotations may include written labels, drawings, diagrams, charts, small specimens, photographs, and graphs. Student engagement and learning is evident in the science journal.”

Sourced from: Primary Connections, Linking science with literacy