Positives

• The picture book engages students and sets them up for success in the subsequent activities.
• The many hands-on activities make learning fun and accessible, especially for kinesthetic learners.

Additional Prerequisites

• Directions for accessing the ebook on an Apple device ask the reader to use the iBooks app, which does not seem to work the way the instructions would imply.
• Students should be familiar with the five senses and the four seasons.
• Students should understand class- and school-wide expectations for outdoor exploration.

Differentiation

• Older students can discuss the impact that climate change has on the changing seasons and, in turn, animal migratory patterns.
• Students can choose a research question to study throughout the season or year, just like the students in the book.
• During an art period, allow students to exercise their creativity and create their interpretation of the hummingbird after constructing the scientifically accurate version.
• The outdoor observation period is a natural opportunity for students to practice their measurement and data skills. They can measure plants and track their growth over time, create scaled drawings in their journals, and record data like the temperature, date, and time.