Hi everyone.

Thank you for coming to learn with me today.

I'm Mrs. Horan and I'm really looking forward to learning all about birds and their life cycles with you in today's lesson.

Today's lesson is part of the unit on reproduction and life cycles of animals.

This lesson is called Bird Life Cycles, and we will be learning all about the stages and changes birds go through during their lives.

The outcome for our lesson today is to describe the stages in the lifecycle of different birds.

The lesson builds on what you already know about bird characteristics and classification, and is part of our big learning questions, what are living things and what are they made of? And how do living things grow and reproduce? These are the keywords that we are going to be focusing on today.

Bird, egg, hatchling, fledgling, and reproduce.

Some of these are probably unfamiliar to you, but don't worry, we're going to have a really good look at them during the lesson.

Here are some explanations of the keywords.

As I said, our new words will be explained as we come to them during the lesson, so you don't need to look too closely at them now, they're just here in case you need a reminder of anything later on and need to look back for a quick check.

Our lesson today is divided into three parts.

Let's get started with the first part.

What are eggs? So eggs is one of our key words today.

Let's think about eggs.

What do you know about eggs? You can see lots of different types of eggs in the pictures here to help kickstart your thinking.

Maybe you know what sorts of animals lay eggs, what is inside eggs or where you can find them.

You might want to pause the video for a moment here to talk about all of your ideas with a partner.

Eggs are part of the lifecycle of some animals, including birds, amphibians, and insects.

As you might remember, birds are warm-blooded, vertebrate animals that have feathers, wings, and a beak.

You can see a pair of birds with these characteristics in the photograph here.

These birds, which are called cattle egrets, have blue eggs like many others.

It can seem strange to see blue eggs when we're so familiar with chicken's eggs, which are a pale, peachy brown colour, but there are actually quite a few common birds with blue eggs, like blackbirds and robins.

Not all eggs look the same.

When birds reproduce, they lay eggs.

To reproduce means to make offspring.

So when birds reproduce, they make more birds of the same type.

The eggs of different birds can be different sizes or colours.

The smallest bird egg there is comes from the bee hummingbird whose eggs are only around one centimetre tall, around the size of a jelly bean.

Meanwhile, ostrich lay the largest eggs, which are around 15 centimetres tall, about the length of an adult-size toothbrush.

The shells of bird eggs are hard, so they protect the living animal inside.

Although they may seem fragile, bird eggs are surprisingly strong and do a very good job of protecting the tiny animal growing inside them.

Inside an egg is a very small bird that is living, but not yet fully formed, so it is alive, but it hasn't yet grown to its full size or fully formed shape.

You can see in the diagram of the chicken egg here that the chicken side looks quite different to how chicks look once they hatch, with shorter legs and a thinner body.

Over time, the bird inside the egg grows and changes shape.

This is why birds stay with their eggs for some time until their offspring are ready to hatch.

They keep the eggs warm, turn them over every so often to help them develop properly, and protect them from any hungry predators that might be about.

Most often it is the mother bird that does this, but for some birds, both the mother and father take turns, and for some, like emperor penguins, it's the father bird who looks after the eggs.

When it is fully formed and ready for life in the outside world, the bird hatches out of the egg.

They use their beaks to break a hole in the eggshell, make some larger cracks, and then climb their way out.

A bird that has just emerged from its egg is called a hatchling.

Hatchling is one of our key words for today.

Can you work out why we call birds at this stage hatchlings? Yep, it is because they have just hatched from their eggs.

Let's do a quick check-in on your understanding of our learning so far.

Read the statements here and decide whether you think they're correct and decide how certain you think they are.

So first statement, A, birds are the only animal that lay eggs.

B, the growing animal inside an egg is alive, and C, the animal inside an egg changes over time.

Pause the video here if you need some more thinking time and come back when you're ready to check your answers.

Let's see how you did.

Statement A is incorrect.

Birds are not the only animals that lay eggs, as fish, reptiles, amphibians, and insects all lay eggs too.

Statement B is correct.

The growing animal inside an egg is very much alive.

And statement C is also correct.

The animal inside the egg goes through a lot of changes as they develop from a very tiny and unformed living thing into a fully formed bird that fills most of the space inside the egg and it's ready to hatch.

Now for a task to apply your new learning about bird's eggs.

Some children are looking at some eggs that have just been laid by a duck.

Lucas says, "I think there is a small duck inside ready to break out and swim." Aisha says, "I think there is a living thing inside, but it is not ready to hatch yet." And Sam says, "I think there is a developing duck that is not yet a living thing." What do you think? Do you agree with any of the children? Do you agree with some parts of what they say and not others? Remember, these eggs have only just been laid by the mother duck.

Pause the video here to discuss your ideas about these duck eggs with a partner.

What did you think? Was there anyone you agreed with or did you have a different idea? Here are some facts about eggs that have just been laid.

Compare them with your ideas to see how accurate you were.

Inside the egg is a living thing.

The bird inside is not fully formed yet, so it is not the shape it will be when it hatches.

When it has grown and fully formed, a hatchling will hatch from the egg.

Did you have any other ideas about eggs? Let's move on to the second part of our lesson now, researching bird life cycles.

As we know already, birds are warm-blooded, vertebrate animals that have wings, feathers, and a beak.

You can see some different types of birds in the pictures there.

You might even know the names of some of them.

What do you know about the lifecycle of a bird? We've just learned about eggs, so we know the bird life cycle begins with eggs.

Do you know anything else? Let's think about how scientists find out about bird life cycles.

How do you think they do it? Bird life cycles take place over months or years.

This means they cannot find out about bird life cycles in the wild very quickly.

To find out about life cycles, scientists must observe birds over time to see how they grow, change, and reproduce.

You can see a scientist in the picture there checking on some bird eggs.

They'll have to keep making observations to see how and when those eggs hatch and how the hatchlings do when they come out.

Now you might be thinking that we already know a lot about bird life cycles, so why are scientists still making observations? Even though we already know a lot about bird life cycles, scientists, like conservationists, still carry out observations to see how species are coping in challenging environments.

If they notice that birds are struggling to reproduce and they can take action to support the species that need help.

We can also find out about bird life cycles by carrying out research using secondary sources of information.

Secondary sources of information are those that have been gathered by others.

This allows us to learn more without having to spend lots of time observing the birds ourselves.

Time for another quick check for understanding.

How can we find out about bird life cycles? See if you can think of two ways.

Pause the video for some thinking time and note down your answers.

How did you do? The answers we have here are, one, we can carry out research using secondary sources, and two, we can observe birds over time.

Did you have any other ideas? Observations and research can help us to understand that the bird lifecycle has four stages.

Here they are.

First, we have the egg, which we have been learning about.

Then out of the egg comes a hatchling.

After some time, the hatchling becomes a fledgling, and finally, the bird becomes an adult.

These photos here show the stages in a blackbird's lifecycle, but all birds have the same stages.

Let's find out a bit more about these lifecycle stages.

When the bird inside the earth has fully formed and grown, it hatches.

This very young bird is called a hatchling.

You might remember that vocabulary from earlier.

You can see a hatchling chicken in the photograph there.

It's still very small and very dependent on its parents.

It cannot move around on its own yet and it needs lots of help from its parents to survive.

Luckily, for most birds, at least one of the parents sticks around to look after their hatchlings, keeping them warm and safe and bringing them food.

This is why birds don't have too many offspring at once because it'll be too difficult to look after them all if they did.

As the bird grows, it becomes a fledgling.

You can see a fledgling chicken in this photograph.

It looks more substantial than the hatchling, doesn't it? Fledglings are more independent and are learning to walk or fly by themselves.

They may still need help from their parents to find food, so they are learning more and getting stronger all the time, but may not be completely ready to live on their own without any help at all yet.

The final stage in the bird lifecycle is the adult bird.

We have an adult chicken in the photo here.

Can you see how it's bigger than the fledgling bird? Its feathers look different now, which is the case for some other birds too.

Adult birds usually look less fluffy than fledglings.

Adults can look after themselves and are able to reproduce.

So at this point, the birds don't get help from their parents anymore because they've grown big enough and learned all the skills they need to take care of themselves, and it's a good job because they are now able to reproduce and so may have offspring of their own to look after before long.

Let's have another quick check for understanding.

Use the words in the box to fill in the blanks in the sentences.

You might not need to use all of the words.

There are some words with similar meanings in the list, so make sure you think carefully about the best word for each gap.

Here is the paragraph you need to complete.

A bird's lifecycle begins with.

When this hatches, a young bird called.

comes out.

This bird grows and becomes.

At this stage, it's becoming more independent.

Finally, the fully grown bird is called.

So pause the video here and have a go at finding the right word for the right gap.

Let's see how you did.

A bird's lifecycle begins with an egg.

When this hatches, a young bird called a hatchling comes out.

This bird grows and becomes a fledgling.

At this stage, it is becoming more independent.

Finally, the fully grown bird is called an adult.

Now it's time for a second practise task of the lesson.

Choose a bird and carry out some research to find out what it is like at each stage in its lifecycle.

Make notes about what does it look like at each stage, how long is each stage, and does the young bird have a special name, such as owlet, gosling, or chick? Laura says that some birds she knows are blackbirds, sparrows, eagles, and robins.

Which bird will you research? You can use one of Laura's ideas or you can choose your own bird to find out about.

Pause the video here to go and complete your research and then come back when you have notes on all of the questions shown on this slide.

Welcome back.

How did you do? Did you learn anything new? Jacob found out that young flamingos are sometimes called fleminglets and that they are grey when they are fledglings.

Laura learned that barn owl eggs hatch after around 32 days.

They're only hatchlings for a short time, and they can fly on their own by around 10 weeks old.

Let's get started with the final part of our lesson today, communicating bird life cycles.

When scientists have learned something through inquiry, they communicate it with others by making it clear and accessible.

When we use the word communicate in this context, we mean they share it with others, they tell others in different ways.

Making something accessible means making it easy for people to access or understand and engage with.

Science communicators often use interesting details and facts so that people will enjoy reading about their findings.

Think about the last time you read a non-fiction text about a science topic.

Did you also include interesting details and facts that help you to enjoy reading? Did they use clear language to make the information accessible? Lifecycle diagrams are a clear way to communicate the different stages of a bird's life.

Images and labels help us to understand how the bird grows and changes over time.

There's a lifecycle diagram of a penguin on the screen there.

There you might recognise this type of diagram from learning about other animal life cycles.

It has a picture of each stage along with the name and arrow showing the order of the stages.

There is an arrow going from the adult penguin to the egg because adult penguins are able to reproduce by laying eggs and start a new lifecycle.

We can see in this diagram that when the penguin is a hatchling, it's very small and grey.

Then its feathers change to be mostly white and quite fluffy-looking when it's a fledgling.

Then when it's an adult, the feathers have changed colour again and the bird is taller and slimmer looking than it was before.

All birds have the same stages in their lifecycle, but there are differences between how they look at each stage.

So these diagrams are really useful for helping us to see how different birds look at each stage of their lifecycle.

We've got a couple more quick checks for understanding now before we take on our final practise task of the lesson.

First, read this statement, decide whether you think it is true or false.

When scientists share their work, they try to make it clear, accessible, and interesting.

Do you think that is true or false? That statement is true.

Now, can you justify your answer? Is it true because scientists want as many people as possible to find out about their work? Or is it true because scientists want to make it difficult for people to understand their work? Great.

It is true because scientists are keen for as many people as possible to find out about their work.

This time, we have a multiple choice question for you to answer.

Why are scientific diagrams used to represent life cycles? Is it A, because they show the different places an animal lives? B, because they show the different foods an animal eats, or C, because they show the different stages in an animal's life? The answer was C, scientific diagrams are used to represent life cycles because they clearly show the different stages in an animal's life.

Your final practise task of the lesson, your job is to use your research from task B to create a bird lifecycle diagram and present it in an interesting way.

You could use a tablet or computer to create your presentation and record your voice speaking over it, or you could write an oral presentation to deliver to an audience.

Izzy is reminding you here to make sure that you communicate what you have found in an interesting way.

We are taking on the role of science communicators with this task, so we want to make sure that people want to read or listen to the information we are sharing.

Of course, as well as your presentation being interesting, it does need to include all the key information about the bird and its lifecycle, so make sure you mention the name of each lifecycle stage and what that bird is like at each stage.

Pause the video here to create your presentation, whatever form it may take, and come back when you're ready.

Welcome back.

How did you do? Did you have a chance to share what you have done with your friends and see how they had presented their information? Jun says that he used a tablet to record himself explaining his lifecycle diagram and added interesting facts.

Izzy says she wrote a script for herself and presented her research findings to her class along with her lifecycle diagram.

Did you present your information in either of these ways or did you do something different? However you chose to communicate your research, I'm sure you made it clear, interesting, and accessible for everyone.

That brings us to the end of our lesson.

We've achieved a lot today.

Let's recap on the key learning points from this lesson.

Birds are living things that can grow and reproduce.

Bird life cycles have four stages, egg, hatchling, fledgling, and adult.

Bird life cycles can be observed and researched over time.

Information about bird life cycles can be communicated using lifecycle diagrams. Thank you so much for joining me today to learn about birds and their life cycles, and thank you for your efforts with researching and presenting information clearly.

I've really enjoyed learning all sorts of interesting facts about birds with you.

I'm looking forward to next time.

See you again later.