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RSPB Big Schools' Birdwatch
Jan. 11, 2024
The RSPB Big Schools' Birdwatch is a great opportunity to get students outside and closer to nature. Taking part can count towards the RSPB's Wild Challenge award, and the RSPB's activities support curriculum learning. Purple Mash contains resources and activities you can use to extend learning in this topic area.
Maths Tools
Counting and representing birds that your students see are great ways of getting them involved in maths, and showing them real-life applications for maths. There are several tools on Purple Mash that can be used during the RSPB Big Schools' Birdwatch.
The graphing tools, 2Count and 2Graph are perfect for children in KS1 and KS2 to visually see the birds counted in different ways. They include pictograms, block graphs and pie charts. Children could then move on to using 2Question to create branching databases about the birds, as well as 2Investigate to sort, filter and analyse database data.
Reading Material
Included in a Purple Mash subscription are a wide array of DK Learning non-fiction texts. Among these are many about animals, which students can use for research during the RSPB Big Schools' Birdwatch. All of the below texts mention birds, so you can be sure there's something for every age group.
Each of the DK Learning texts has accompanying resources, including quizzes and reading comprehension questions. There are also writing templates and other activities for students to complete.
If you're looking for an exciting story involving birds, then why not give Serial Mash a try?
There are over 200 stories on Serial Mash which can be scheduled, chapter by chapter, and accessed in school or at home. There are reading comprehension and writing activities for each chapter, and all students get an online reading journal!
Writing Projects
You can find ready-made writing projects about birds here, but you might also want to use some of our writing templates to come up with other lesson ideas. Students could design and write a Web Page all about the birds they spot, or a Slide Show to present to the rest of the class.
Games and Quizzes
There are lots of fun bird-related activities that your students can take part in on Purple Mash. They can label birds, identify bird sounds, and even do puzzles and painting projects about birds!
All of these activities are included as part of a Purple Mash subscription. To get a free trial, just click the button below.