Learning about Birds with Thornton Burgess

9 reviews for Learning about Birds with Thornton Burgess

1. 

   Erika – March 25, 2015

   I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that you’ve created this! I plan to use the Burgess bird book next year and I’ve been wishing for something to go along with it. Thank you!

2. 

   JamochaJo – April 3, 2015

   Question: Is there a list available of needed resources? I’d like to know, in case I need to purchase any. Thank you!

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     Jordan Smith – April 3, 2015

     The free sample has the list of resources used in the book on the Materials Needed page.

3. 

   Lori – April 16, 2015

   I’m planning on using this for our upcoming school year, it looks as straightforward and well done as all your resources so consistently are. Question: while searching for the Audubon field guides, I see one for Western North American birds and one for Easter North American birds. Should I purchase both? The one for our region? Is one more appropriate for the Burgess book? Am I not finding a complete collection? The Audubon website was not helpful in this search either:)

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     Jordan Smith – April 17, 2015

     You’ll want a field guide for your region, since you’ll be using it to identify the birds that you see.

4. 

   AFthfulJrney – April 22, 2015

   I was so happy to see this when I came to your website beginning to plan out our next school year. We school from August to May and live in Southwestern PA. Will this book still be effective during those months in the area that I live?

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     Sonya Shafer – April 23, 2015

     Learning about Birds with Thornton Burgess walks you through The Burgess Bird Book for Children and Blacky the Crow and encourages you to keep a master list of all the birds you spot and can identify throughout the year. It doesn’t tell you to look for certain birds at certain times of the year. The birds will be presented in the story in a particular order, of course, (the story line happens to start in the springtime), but it’s not a restrictive order for you and your students. The nature study ideas sprinkled throughout the study are general and would apply to whatever birds are in your area during any time of year.

5. 

   Carol-Anne – October 28, 2015

   These look like a wonderful resource. We live in Australia and I was wondering if this study would still be appropriate and the logistics of application.

   thank you

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     Sonya Shafer – October 28, 2015

     Good question, Carol-Anne. The birds covered in the Thornton Burgess books are mainly found in North America. You might take a look at the online version of his Bird Book for Children, which is the main spine for the study. If you scroll past the chapter contents and look at the Expanded Contents, you’ll see exactly which birds are covered in each chapter. Hope this helps!

6. 

   Stacy Montgomery – March 19, 2016

   I have a question about the bonus challenge on page 45. Can you explain to me how to use the habitat sheets in making the world map? Aren’t the habitats of the birds in the book all on one farm? I haven’t read it in years, so maybe I’m just not remembering it all, and I’m having my 6th grader complete this for term 3, and wanted to add the additional study for her age. I just wanted to be able to understand completely what the bonus is before I explain it to her next week. I think I just don’t understand quite clearly how to do the bonus challenge.
   Thanks so much,
   Stacy

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     Sonya Shafer – March 21, 2016

     In and around Farmer Brown’s farm are several different bird habitats: some birds live in the trees of the old orchard; some near the still water of the smiling pool; some by the moving water of the laughing brook; some in the great forest; others in the green meadow; etc. So listing each bird you learn about in its particular habitat is one part of the challenge.

     The other part is to try to piece together a map of what Thornton Burgess had in his mind when he created this imaginary world. I envision it kind of like the overview map on the flyleaf of Winnie-the-Pooh or Lord of the Rings books. The chapters in the Burgess Bird Book give clues about where each habitat is located in relation to others, so I thought it might be fun for the older students to try to piece together all the clues they hear/read and create that overview map, plotting where the old orchard is in relation to the barn and where the green meadow is located in relation to both of those pieces and so forth. I thought it might be easier to arrange and rearrange the habitats on separate sheets of paper first as they work through the book; then once they have all of the pieces arranged satisfactorily, they could sketch the map and show the World of Thornton Burgess.

     Hope this helps!

7. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   H.S. – May 9, 2017

   We are about half way through the book and lessons and we have really enjoyed them! The coloring book that is suggested works perfectly and the stories are really a wonderful way to learn about the character of each bird. I, too, wanted to learn the birds by sight (a life-long wish!) so purchased “Sibley Backyard Birding Flashcards” (2012) which has almost all of the birds spoken of in the story. As we learn a new bird we find a quick video on youtube to see its movements and its song and then look at the flash card. I have kept a running 6-8 flash cards of the birds in our Scripture Memory Box so we can go through them daily. We’ll use them to play little games and quizzes and even my 3 year old is so pleased with himself that he can either say the name of the bird or successfully point it out. A great addition to our day!

8. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Shelby Alford – September 25, 2018

   We are really enjoying this great resource, and my kids aren’t the only ones benefiting!;) Would you recommend that they listen to the story and THEN write and draw in the notebook about the habitats and habits, or do you think it is too distracting to do it during?

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     Sonya Shafer – September 25, 2018

     I’m glad you’re enjoying Learning about Birds. I would encourage you to have them write and draw after the reading as a form of narration.

9. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Jennifer Schieuer – November 27, 2019

   I’m so excited to use this! The only thing that I wish was different, in looking over the sample, is that that the table of contents also had the name of the birds being covered in each lesson listed along with the lesson numbers. We like to learn about birds as we see them throughout the year, and it would make it so much easier to look up specific birds if the bird names were also listed in the table of contents.