Following in the pattern of her Microscope Adventure!, the author, Kym Wright has again created a very thorough study on a different topic. This study takes kids (and their parents) on a very interesting trip through everything you’d want to know about birds. It begins with finding out about birds in your area, identifying them by sight and sound, and making different types of bird feeders to further observe them, and choosing a "special bird" as some of the activities (and final project) they’ll do learning about their specific species. This moves along to how they can fly, their anatomy, feathers, family life and courtship, and even to professions related to birds. Usborne’s Ornithology book is used as a reference. The study is laid out with "Kym’s Konstruction Kit," which is a lesson plan helper. This is a flexible chart that will, of course, not work for everyone, but it is easy to tailor to your own purposes and gives you a feel for what you will cover, and how long it will take. There’s also an outline given, with goals and objectives, and then you move on into the actual study. The activities are varied and fun, ranging from getting practice at drawing birds and noticing markings to building your own bird nest to casting bird tracts to constructing a chicken skeleton. There are also activities that continue throughout your course, such as identifying birds in your area by song, and sketching them. Besides all this, there are activity sheets (and some fun eggsperiments) in the back of the book, and also lists of Scripture references, additional books and literature that would be helpful, vocabulary lists, writing ideas, field trip ideas, and more. This all builds up to the Final Project, which the kids will spend about a week on, and use in conjunction with the research outline to show off what they’ve learned about birds in general and their chosen species. It is suggested that at the beginning of the course, you incubate and hatch a fertilized chicken egg for a real good look at the life cycle and the development of a typical bird. If you start the eggs at the beginning of the study, it should be hatched by the time it’s over. Of course, what you do with it after the study is up to you - you always wanted a chicken farm, didn’t you?
 

This was author Kym Wright’s Christmas present for her bird-loving daughter in 1995. It is very complete, needing only one truly necessary resource book, Usborne’s Ornithology, listed in this section. Others are nice to have on hand, such as field guides and Dover coloring books. The author teaches you to personalize this study for your own family. In the body of the text, she doesn’t seem to miss a thing! It’s all there, from incubating eggs and drawing birds to feeders and houses, songs , and scientific classification. If you, like Kym, have a child fascinated with birds, this book would surely meet your needs. And besides that, the lesson plans are all ready for you to use!
 

Bird Unit Study

The Bird Adventure! by Kym Wright is 90+ pages, dubbed "Unit Studies for the Clueless" by Mary Pride's reviewer. It includes everything needed for a comprehensive study of birds by the whole family. Lots of hands-on activities and well laid-out. Parent/teacher can sit back and learn along with the students. Learn to identify birds in the field, air, or on water. Hands-on and research projects help you learn bird species, beaks, feet, habitat, incubating eggs, and more. Appropriate for all age and grade levels. Eggsperiments and Lab Sheets provided, along with writing, science, history, literature, videos and more. 90+ pages.