Nature Study Lesson #11, Parts A & B: The Robin

The lesson on the Robin is probably the most detailed lesson on birds in the Handbook of Nature Study. It is actually broken down into six parts, to be given at different times throughout the spring and summer. We began talking about the Robin last week, discussing the fact that some robins spend the winter here, but most winter further south and return in the spring. I showed them a picture of the bird and played its song to help them identify this bird. I simply asked them to keep a look-out for them and to let me know if they saw one so I could write the date of when they saw their first robin in their notebooks. We can then refer to their notebooks each year to compare the dates of their return. In this way they can begin to see the cycles in nature.

This week I decided to go on to the second set of questions despite the fact that no one has spotted a robin yet because this lesson is looking at the details of the robin.

"...the pupils may have individual notebooks in which each may write his own answers to the questions...The cover or first page should show the picture of the robin colored by the pupil, and may contain other illustrative drawings and any poems or other literature pertinent to the subject."

When the robins begin appearing, we will continue with the rest of the questions, which include observations of their behavior. The discussions about the robin reminded me of last summer when we went blackberry picking at a friend's farm and discovered a robin's nest with an older baby bird in the nest. He was very unhappy to see us so close to his nest and made lots of fussing noises and wing flapping. He was fussing so much I had a hard time getting a picture of him! This is the best I could manage, but it is enough to see his untidy new feathers.

Another resource is the Burgess Book of Birds, which can be found here.