A Cross Curricular Unit for Young Learners

With a Focus on Bald Eagles

By Nancy VandenBerge
Firstgradewow.blogspot.com

This little unit includes

A book list
Several brainstorming organizers
Poem and mini book
Vocabulary
Life cycle poster
Word search
Written expression opportunity
Think Outside the Box
Eagle Cam observation recording
page
Acrostic poem opportunity
Craft ideas
Science observations
Math tub activities
Extra bald eagle fun

Some Literature to accompany

your study
Is a Bald Eagle Really Bald? By Martha Rustad
Eagles by Deborah Hodge
The Eagles are Back By Jean Craighead George
The Bald Eagle By Norman Pearl
Eagans Alaskan Adventure By Tim Ostermeyer
Hook By Ed Young
Majestic Eagles By Stan Tekiela
The Bald Eagle By Elaine Landau
The Bald Eagle By Lloyd Douglas
Bald Eagle By Hal Marcovitz
Eagles for Kids By Charlene Gieck
Soaring With the Wind By Gail Gibbons
Our Wild World- Eagles By Laura Evert
Eagles By Sally Morgan
The Wonder of Bald Eagles By Eileen Foran
United Tweets of America By Hudson Talbott

Name _________________

Bald Eagles
Know

Want to Know

Learned

Name _________________

Bald Eagles
are

have

can

Name _________

Bald Eagles

If I Could Soar Like An Eagle

If I could soar like an eagle
In the sky so blue,
I could see for miles.
Id have the best view.
If I could soar like an eagle,
Id visit mountains high.
Id fly over the ocean.
Fish would watch me glide.
If I could soar like an eagle
I would feel so free.
Below me would be the forests,
As far as my eye could see.
If I could soar like an eagle
Riding with rising air.
I could glide three miles up
And be without a care.
If I could soar like an eagle,
The clouds would be my friends.
My strength and adventures
Would never ever end!
N. VandenBerge

If I Could Soar Like an Eagle

Illustrated by _____________

If I could soar like an eagle

In the sky so blue,
I could see for miles.
Id have the best view.

If I could soar like an eagle,

Id visit mountains high.
Id fly over the ocean.
Fish would watch me glide.

If I could soar like an eagle

I would feel so free.
Below me would be the forests,
As far as my eye could see.

If I could soar like an eagle

Riding with rising air.
I could glide three miles up
And be without a care.

If I could soar like an eagle,

The clouds would be my friends.
My strength and adventures
Would never ever end!

All About Bald Eagles

Illustrated by _____________
An I Can Read This Book

Bald eagles are large raptors. They are birds

of prey.
1

Bald eagles eat mostly fish. Sometimes they

will catch other small animals.

Bald eagles are dark brown with a white head

and tail. The talons and beak are yellow.
The beak is large and hooked.
3

Bald eagles like big lakes. They build nests near

those lakes. Eagle nests are some of the
4
largest in the world.

Female bald eagles lay two or three eggs a

year. The eggs incubate for about 35 days.
5

Using an egg tooth to crack the shell, the

eaglets hatch. They are light gray down
covered babies.

Eaglets grow and learn to fly (fledge) at about

twelve weeks old. They are then called
fledglings.
7

Eagles can fly about 65 miles an hour, and up

to 200 miles an hour in a dive.
8

Eagles have excellent eyesight and can spot

their prey about 3 miles away.
9

Name ________

Bald Eagle Vocabulary

bird of prey

a bird with a hooked beak

and talons that hunts other
animals for food

eaglet

A baby eagle

egg tooth

A sharp piece on an eaglets

beak used for pecking out
of the shell

fledge

To learn to fly

fledgling

An eaglet who has learned

to fly

prey

An animal that is hunted for

food

raptor

A bird of prey

talon

An eagle claw

A life cycle
is a series of
changes that
happen to a living
creature over its
lifetime.

Cut the strips apart.

Glue them in order to complete the life cycle.

Inside the warm egg is everything

a hatchling needs to grow.
Finally the chick is ready to hatch.
The hatchling grows into an eaglet and then
becomes an adult bald eagle.
A female eagle lays an egg in a nest.
The adult eagles turn the egg over
to keep it warm on all sides.
After 35 days of growing the chick pecks a tiny
hole in the shell of the egg using its egg tooth.

Inside the egg a new chick is growing.

The adult eagles sit on top of the egg
to keep it warm.

Name__________

Life Cycle of a Bald Eagle

Name_______________

Compare and Contrast

Adult Bald Eagles with Eaglets

Adult

Eaglet

Name ____________________
Find and circle the eagle life cycle words in the puzzle.

n i
l g d e l f
tree nest egg incubate
thirtyfive eggtooth eaglet down
fledgling adult
How many times did you find the word egg?
_________

On the back write a sentence with at least two of the words.

Name ___________
This is not an egg! Think Outside the Box! What can you create?

On the back write about what you created!

Name ___________
This is not a feather! Think Outside the Box! What can you create?

On the back write about what you created!

Bald Eagle
Hands On Visual
Make nest from shredded
brown paper. Paint gray handprint
bird body for eaglet.
Orange or yellow fingerprint beak. Or
cut some out of paper.
Wiggly Eyes.

Kids copy poem in best handwriting.

Add written component to handprint eagle craft.

I spy with my little eye

Some babies soft and gray.
Theyll grow to soar across the land,
Flying free! Hooray! Hooray!
What do you spy?

Bald Eagle Hands On Visual

Tree with nest and birds
Use real tree twig and leaves. Raffia or crinkle paper nest, fingerprint
birds. Tiny wiggly eyes. Write facts around art.

Name __________

A bald eagle egg is about the size of a tennis

ball. What else is about that same size?

Create an eagle with some interesting

facts under a flap. Either have kids
research bald eagles, or let them pick a
fact from the ones included in unit.
Patterns for eagle to follow.

Wings are kids hand prints.

Did you Know?

By ________

Did you Know?

By ________

Did you know that _________________

_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
____________

Did you know that _________________

_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
____________

Bald Eagle Facts

*The bald eagle is a member of the sea and fish eagle group.
*The female bald eagle is about 37 inches long.
The male bald eagle is about 35 inches long.
The wingspan of the bald eagle can reach up to 90 inches.
Bald eagles can fly to an altitude of about of 10,000 feet.
Bald eagles can fly at a rate of 35 miles per hour.
A group of eagles flying together is called a kettle of eagles.
Bald eagles can weight up to fourteen pounds.
Bald eagle bones are light because they are hollow.
Bald eagle beaks, talons, and feathers are made of keratin,
Bald eagles have 7,000 feathers.
Bald eagles puff up their feathers to stay warm, or to make
themselves look bigger when threatened.
Bald eagles can live as long as 30 years.
Bald eagles sit at the top of the food chain.
Bald eagles can lift up to four pounds.
Bald eagles eat mainly fish, but will also feed on other dead
animals.
Bald eagles are strong swimmers, but dont like cold water.
Bald eagles have excellent eyesight.
Bald eagle nests are mainly built in tall trees near rivers or
coasts.
Bald eagle pairs remain together their entire lives.
Bald eagle females lay from one to three eggs.
The bald eagle became the American National emblem in 1782.

Bald eagles have scaled feet with four toes, three toes
face forward and the fourth one backwards.
A bald eagles brain is about an inch or so sized cube.
A female eagle could have about 25 eaglets in her lifetime.
Bald eagle eggs are a dull white and are about the size of a
tennis ball.
Bald eagles greatest enemy is man.
Bald eagle nests can be 2 feet deep and 5 feet across.
Bald eagle nests can way about one ton.
Bald eagles are found in North America.
It takes about 5 years for a bald eagle to get white
feathers on his/her head and tail.
Bald eagles get their name from an Old English words,
balde, which means white.
The American bald eagle was adopted as the official
bird emblem of the United States of America in 1782. The
bald eagle was chosen because of it's majestic beauty,
great strength, long life, and because it's native to North
America.

If I had eagle wings!

Have kids write about where they would go if they
could soar like an eagle. Cut brown hand prints, and
trace and cut included eagle parts. Cut out own
feet/talons. Cut out center of head shape. Attach a
photograph of kiddos face.

If I had eagle wings, I would

_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
By ______________________

If I had eagle wings, I would

_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
By ______________________

Live bald eagle camsFlorida:

http://www.eagles.org/Cams/FloridaNest-Cam3.html

Georgia:
http://livestream.com/berrynest1/events/4299357

Pennsylvania:
http://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/bald-eagle-live-cam

My Eagle Cam
Observation
Record
By ________________________________

Location of nest ________________________

Date eggs were laid _______________
Todays date __________________
Observations

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

Location of nest ________________________

Date eggs were laid _______________
Todays date __________________
Observations

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

Location of nest ________________________

Date eggs were laid _______________
Todays date __________________
Observations

_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

Name _________

EAGLE
E
A
G
L
E

The bald eagle is pictured on the United States Great Seal.

The bald eagle is also pictured on the US Presidential seal.

The Science of Feathers

To explore feathers, you will need:
a feather (You can get them in craft stores if you don't have one.)
scissors
paper
tape
a magnifying glass
First, don't go out and collect feathers from wild birds. Most wild
birds are protected and in many places it is against the law to have
their feathers. It is OK to have feathers from domestic birds, such
as chickens and ducks. That is what you will find in most craft
stores. They will work very well for this activity.
Feathers are quite wonderful things. To help the bird fly, they need
to be light, strong, and able to provide a broad surface to push
against the air. We can see how this works by taking a closer look at
the feather.
A little examination will show that a feather is very light. You can see
why by using scissors to cut through the central shaft of the
feather, which is called the rachis. You will find that it is a hollow
tube. The thickest part of the feather is a thin tube, filled with air.
No wonder it is light. But, if it is hollow, how can it also be strong
enough to lift the weight of the bird?
You can see where the strength comes from by using a sheet of
paper. When it is flat, it bends very easily, but try rolling the paper
into a tube. Use some tape to keep the tube from unrolling. Gentle
testing will show you that the paper tube is much more resistant to
bending than the flat sheet of paper, and that it can support quite a
bit more weight. This shape gives the feather the strength it needs.

Besides being light and strong, the feather also needs to be

able to push against the air. For this to work, the feathers
must form a solid wing. The part of the feather that forms
this surface is called the vane. Look closely and you will see
that the vane is made up of many long, hair-like structures
called barbs. For the feather to do its job, these barbs must
stick together to form a continuous surface. At first your
feather may fit that description, but if you pull gently, you can
easily separate the barbs. Now your feather will let the air
flow through. A bird with too many feathers in that condition
would not be able to get off the ground.
Luckily, the feather is easily fixed. Use your fingers to smooth
the barbs back into place. You should find that they once
again stick together to form the continuous surface that the
bird needs. How can they do that?
If you have a magnifying glass, use it to look closely at the
barbs. Each barb has many tiny hooks, called barbules.
These hooks interlock with the barbules from the next barb,
acting very much in the same way that Velcro does. This
makes the feather easily repairable. By pulling the feather
through its beak, the bird can stick the barbs back together,
so the feather can continue doing its job.
Feathers do much more than just help the bird fly. They trap
air against the bird's skin, forming a wonderful layer of
insulation. This keeps the bird warm in winter. Feathers also
overlap to form a smooth, streamlined covering to help the
bird's body slip easily through the air. They give the bird its
color too. All in all, they make a wonderful covering for the
bird.

Name __________
The Science of Feathers

Name __________

The Science of Feathers

Draw a picture of your feather.
Can you find all the parts?
Label as many as you can.

Eagle Math!
The next few
pages include
some math
activities with
an eagle
theme. You
will find some
graphing, some
word
problems,
some addition,
subtraction,
and some
strategy
games.

Welcome to

Menu:
Fish
Fish
Fish
Fish

The main diet of bald eagles

is fish! Take a bag of fish
crackers. Sort the crackers
by color on the sorting mat.
Record the amounts for
each color on the graph.
Then answer the
observation questions.

The
Bald Eagle
Diner
Sorting Mat

Name_____________________

The Bald Eagle Diner

Order Up!
Use a bar graph to organize information.

yellow

orange

red

green

Name_____________________

The Bald Eagle Diner

Order Up!
Which color fish did you have the most?
Which color fish did you have the least?

How many yellows and oranges did you have

altogether?
How many greens and reds did you have
altogether?
What is the difference between your highest
and your lowest amounts?
How many total fish crackers did you have?

New Daily Special!

Fish Pie!
Gather 20 fish crackers.
Color the pie chart to show how many of each
color fish you have.
Answer the observation question!

Name ___________________

The
Bald Eagle
Diner

Fish Pie Special!

Use a Pie Chart to organize information

and then compare.

Name __________________________

Fish Pie Special!

How many yellow fish did you have?

How many red and orange fish did you have

altogether?

How many green, orange, and red fish did

you have?

Write a number sentence to show how many

fish you have in all.

Ive Got My Eagle

Eye on Math!
By __________

Ive Got My Eagle

Eye on Math!
By __________

The eagles worked on their nest for 4 hours on

Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday. How many hours
did they work?

The eagles worked on their nest for 4 hours on

Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday. How many hours
did they work?

Mama Eagle laid one egg on Thursday, one egg on

Saturday, and one egg on Monday. How many eggs
did Mama Eagle lay?

Mama Eagle laid one egg on Thursday, one egg on

Saturday, and one egg on Monday. How many eggs
did Mama Eagle lay?

It takes 35 days for an eaglet to hatch from her

egg. If it is day 20, how many more days will it take
until she hatches?

It takes 35 days for an eaglet to hatch from her

egg. If it is day 20, how many more days will it take
until she hatches?

Mama Eagle caught six fish for her babies. Daddy

Eagle caught 11. How many fish were caught in all?

Mama Eagle caught six fish for her babies. Daddy

Eagle caught 11. How many fish were caught in all?

The eaglets ate five fish the first week, six fish the
second week, and seven fish the third week. How
many fish were eaten all together?

The eaglets ate five fish the first week, six fish the
second week, and seven fish the third week. How
many fish were eaten all together?

The eaglets can fly at 12 weeks old. They are now

10 weeks old. How many more weeks until they can
fly?

The eaglets can fly at 12 weeks old. They are now

10 weeks old. How many more weeks until they can
fly?

Eagle Family
Fact Family Practice

Match the number sentences on the eggs to the nest

with the fact family numbers. Write the family on the
recording page.

Eagle Family Cards

Print and cut apart

11+9=20

9+11=20

20-9=11

20-11=9

12+8=20

8+12=20

20-12=8 20-8=12

13+7=20 7+13=20

20-13=7

20-7=13

14+6=20

20-6=14

20-14=6

6+14=20

Eagle Family Fact

Family Sorting Mat

Name ________________

Eagle Family Fact Family

Recording Page

#s

#s

#s

#s

Ive Got My Eagle Eye on a

Mystery Picture!

Clues:
Yellow:
20+3, 20+4, 30+3

Brown:
53 through 59
61 through 70
71 through 80
81 through 90
91 through 100

Blue:
All one digit numbers,
10+0, 10+1, 10+2, 10+3, 10+4,
10+9, 10+10, 20+1, 20+2, 20+9, 20+10,
30+1, 30+2, 30+4, 3+9, 30+10, 40+1,
40+2, 40+3, 40+4, 40+9, 40+10, 50+1,
50+2, 50+10

Name ______________

10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99

100

The mystery picture is _________

Name ______________

10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99

100

The mystery picture is _________

Addition and
Subtraction
(30 cards)

I have 0
eagles. Who
has 7 more?

I have 7.
Who has 20
more?

I have 27.
Who has 2
less?

I have 25.
Who has 10
more?

I have 35.
Who has 5
more?

I have 20.
Who has 8
more?

I have 40.
Who has 20
less?

I have 28.
Who has 10
less?

I have 18.
Who has 3 less?

I have 55.
Who has
5 less?

I have15.
Who has 40
more?

I have 50.
Who has 20
more?

I have 70.
Who has10
less?

I have 60.
Who has 2
more?

I have 62.
Who has 10
less?

I have 52.
Who has 7
more?

I have 59.
Who has10
less?

I have 41.
Who has 3
more?

I have 49.
Who has 8
less?

I have 44.
Who has 30
more?

I have 74.
Who has 5
more?

I have 71.
Who has 50
less?

I have 79.
Who has 8
less?

I have 21.
Who has 5
more?

I have 26.
Who has10
less?

I have 19.
Who has 20
more?

I have 16.
Who has 3
more?

I have 39.
Who has 2
less?

I have 37.
Who has 7 less?

I have 30.
Who has 30
less?

Feather Flash
Print following feather cards
on cardstock and cut apart.

3 Player Addition /Subtraction Game

One player will be the EAGLE!
Deal out all cards face down to the two remaining players who are
facing each other.
The Eagle says GO! and each player hold up a feather on his/her
forehead with the number facing the other player.
The Eagle looks at both numbers and adds mentally. Then the Eagle
shouts out the sum.
The players then must shout out what number is on his/her forehead
by filling in that missing addend or by subtracting. No Peeking!!
The first to do so, gets a point!
Repeat!

Each player gets 3 game pieces of the same color.(Jelly beans would be fun!
Take turns putting the pieces on a dot on the game board. When all 6 pieces are
used, take turns moving pieces along the lines until one player gets three in a row
across, up and down, or diagonally. That player is the winner! No jumping is
allowed! Plan your strategy!! Clear the board and play again!

Sums
Play with a partner. Take
turns. Roll three dice. Add
those numbers. Use a counter
to cover that sum on your
game board. The first one to
cover all the numbers in a
row horizontally, vertically, or
diagonally wins!!

Sums
18
4
6
5
11
13

8
13
17
4
17
12

9
10
3
16
18
16

8
14
11
14
15
15

7
15
4
12
17
14

5
5
9
10
13
16

Wingspan VS. Armspan!

Compare the wingspan of a
bald eagle with your armspan!
The wingspan of an adult female Bald Eagle is around 7
feet and average height is 3 feet! Draw a life-sized
silhouette of an eagle with outstretched wings. Have
kids compare their own span!

Create a mural from kids handprints cut from yellow,

white and brown paper. Or use magazine scraps in
those colors. Mural can be larger than life! A fun
activity for an entire gradelevel.

Idea from Pinterest. No note of origin. If this is

yours, Thank you for the great idea!!! Please let us
know!!

I have purchased and use graphics from

these amazing artists. Check them Out!!