This Dreaming story is a wonderful way to explore First Nations culture and practice with children. Author Mary Albert from the Bardi tribe was told this story by her mother when she was a young girl. In this book, bold children’s paintings can inspire children to ask questions, share knowledge, and offer their hypotheses about colours, patterns, bird behaviour, and more. Read on for STEM activity ideas related to “How The Birds Got Their Colours”.
You can also join our Facebook group “Early STEM Educators Network” to exchange ideas and questions with other educators about embedding books, First Nations STEM perspectives, and more in your setting!
Book summary
In a world where “all the birds were black”, a dove becomes injured while feeding. Many of its bird friends try to help. One of these is the parrot who uses its beak to burst open the dove’s swollen foot. Suddenly, splashes of colour cover the birds! No longer black, the birds’ feathers are now a wide range of colours and patterns. All except for the crow. Because the crow hadn’t helped the dove, the crow receives “no colour at all”.
Colour Activities
🎨 Invite children to experiment with a materials buffet to create their own depiction of the illustrations. For example, you can provide paints, scrap paper, cloth, cardboard boxes, blocks, and dried leaves.
🎨 Use paint to explore how colours can be mixed to form new colours. What happens when the children mix two colours? What about three? Can they recreate colours they see in the book?
🎨 Take the children outdoors and observe colours in nature. Does the green of leaves look different than in the book? Why are some leaves green, while others are brown?
Bird Activities
🐦 Invite the children to observe and document the birds that visit your service. Extend this by supporting the children to jot down what kind of bird(s) they are and their specific characteristics and habits. Refrain from Googling this so the children are provided space to investigate in their own time.
🐦 Take a birdwatching walk at a park and ask the children to note any differences between the birds they see here and back at your service. What might be different about the environments surrounding the birds?
🐦 Invite the children to build a bird nest out of everyday materials. Consider what might a nest require, for example: Can it hold the weight of a bird? What about some eggs? Does a nest need to be a particular colour or shape?
🐦 Create a sensory bin with items such as old twigs or leaves, pebbles, and bird toys. Prompt the children to explore the items using their sense of touch, sight, and sound. Do the items make different noises? Does some feel lighter to hold than others?
🐦 Recreate the sounds of different birds with the children! They can use their own voices, musical instruments, or other items found around your service. Record the sounds and play them back to the children to compare with the real bird sounds.
Inquiry-Based Learning
As you can see, simply reading a book can lead to countless STEM explorations, which can then spark an inquiry-based STEM project led by the children in your service.
An inquiry-based STEM project starts with selecting a single research question that is sparked by an observation, interest, or question raised by your children, for example, “Why are spiderwebs sticky?”
The focus of an inquiry-based STEM project is on process and learning (rather than quickly finding an answer), which means your project should explore the research topic over many weeks or months. You can read more about inquiry-based projects here.
Developing an inquiry-based STEM project with children is an essential component of certifying as a Little Scientists House. This certification is Australia’s only dedicated STEM certification program for early learning services and classrooms. Certification allows you to showcase to parents and the community that your team is delivering best practice inquiry-based STEM education and gives you access to a huge range of perks, including $20 off every workshop ticket, $200 off in-service bookings, and STEM mentoring sessions. Learn about how to apply and the perks here.
Develop your STEM skills with pedagogy-based STEM PD:
- Browse our in-person STEM workshops.
- Browse our online STEM workshops.
- Browse our online STEM Hours.
- Book an in-service workshop for your team.
- Book a STEM Family Workshop for your families.
