Teacher sheet · Ages 6–7 · about 45–50 minutes
Long journeys
Lesson page: echoesof.science/school/migration/ages-6-7/ · Pupil worksheet: echoesof.science/school/migration/ages-6-7/print/
Learning aims
- Migration is a regular journey that some animals make every year.
- Animals migrate to find food and good places to have their young.
- Swallows, monarch butterflies and humpback whales migrate.
- Birds use the sun, stars, landmarks and the Earth's magnetism to find the way.
Lesson plan
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 5 min | Starter: where do the swallows go when they leave in autumn? |
| 5 min | First shadow-stick drawing (morning). |
| 10 min | Read the text together; show the journeys on a globe or world map. |
| 5 min | Fly or swim? game. |
| 5 min | Quiz. |
| 10 min | Later: two more shadow drawings and talk about the results. |
Materials for the experiment
- A stick or a pencil in a lump of modelling clay
- A large sheet of paper
- Stones or tape to hold the paper
- A crayon
- A sunny day
Safety: Never look straight at the sun. Wear a hat if you are outside. Do not leave the stick where someone can trip over it.
Common misconceptions
| Pupils may think… | Actually… |
|---|---|
| Birds fly south only because they feel cold. | Mostly they follow food; many birds can survive cold if there is enough to eat. |
| The sun stays in the same place in the sky. | It seems to move during the day, so the shadow moves. |
| Only birds migrate. | Butterflies, whales and fish migrate too. |
Worksheet answers
- Drawing of any migrating animal with its winter place (e.g. a swallow in Africa, a whale in warm seas).
- Yes.
- The sun, the stars, rivers or mountains, or the Earth's magnetism.
Quiz answers
- What do we call a long journey that animals make every year? Migration. Migration is a regular, big journey.[1]
- Where do swallows spend the winter? In Africa. They come back to Britain in spring to have babies.[3]
- Why do monarch butterflies fly south in autumn? They cannot survive a cold winter. They fly to warm forests in Mexico.[4]
- Where are humpback whale babies born? In warm seas. Whales eat in cold seas and have babies in warm seas.[5]
- What can a bird use to find its way? The sun and the stars. Birds also use rivers, mountains and the Earth's magnetism.[1]
Going further
Keep a class calendar: write down the day you see the first swallow or swift in spring, and the last in autumn.
Sources used in this lesson
- [1] The basics: how, why, and where of bird migration (Cornell Lab of Ornithology (All About Birds)): reliability High
- [2] The basics: how birds navigate when they migrate (Cornell Lab of Ornithology (All About Birds)): reliability High
- [3] Bird migration (British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)): reliability High
- [4] Monarch butterfly migration and overwintering (USDA Forest Service): reliability High
- [5] Humpback whale (NOAA Fisheries): reliability High
Full list with links and a note on each source's reliability: echoesof.science/school/migration/sources/
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