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Single Sessions
The CI Bird Sanctuary offers hands-on, standalone class visit sessions that bring birds and STEM learning directly to your classroom. Each session runs 40 minutes to 1 hour and is led by our program educators using bioartifacts, sensory activities, and guided investigation. All lessons can be adjusted to fit your preferred grade level.
Booking Snapshot
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Session length: 40 minutes – 1 hour
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Fee: Contact for Pricing
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Group size: Up to 30 students
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Setting: Classroom-based; outdoor options available depending on lesson
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Grades served: K–5
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Booking: Contact us at gabby@cibirdsanctuary.org or fill out our Class Visit Request Form
Lesson Catalog
Birds, Boats, & Bernoulli's
Students explore how Bernoulli's principle helps both birds and boats move through the air. Using the Turkey Vulture as a model, they'll investigate how wing shape and moving air create lift, then apply the same ideas to explain how a sailboat moves.
Next Generation Science Standards
3-PS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the
motion of an object.
3-PS2-2: Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion.
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Grades 3-5
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Osprey Adaptations
Students explore the physical and behavioral adaptations that help ospreys survive in their environment: reversible toes, sharp talons, and preening behaviors that support hunting and survival. By the end, students connect an organism's structure and behavior to its success in its habitat.
Next Generation Science Standards
K-ESS3-1: Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans)and the places they live.
K-LS1-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.​​​​​​​​​​​​​
3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat, some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
4-LS1-1: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
Grades K - 4
Turkey Vulture Adaptations
Students investigate how turkey vultures are specially adapted to their role as scavengers. Through engaging experiments and sensory activities, they'll discover how a featherless head, strong stomach acid, and an exceptional sense of smell keep vultures healthy while feeding on carrion.
Next Generation Science Standards
K-LS1-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat, some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
4-LS1-1: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
Grades K - 4
What's Underfoot?
Grades K - 4
Students explore how birds' feet are specially adapted to help them survive in different environments. Working in groups, they examine a unique bird-foot artifact, make evidence-based predictions about diet and habitat, and connect foot structure — talons, webbing, gripping toes — directly to survival.
Next Generation Science Standards
K-LS1-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external
parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.​
3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some surviveless well, and some cannot survive at all.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
4-LS1-1: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support
survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
Heron Adaptations
Grades K - 4
Students will investigate how herons and egrets are specially adapted to hunt with precision in soft, unstable environments like mudflats and marshes. Through hands-on experiments and movement games, they'll discover how long, spread toes prevent sinking in wet mud and a sharp, spear-like bill allows for a precise strike on fish. The lesson highlights how these adaptations, paired with patience and stealth, let herons hunt efficiently while staying balanced in unpredictable terrain.
Next Generation Science Standards
K-LS1-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
4-LS1-1: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
Toxin Transfer
Students investigate how toxins move through a bird's ecosystem, focusing on how chemicals like DDT travel through the Osprey's food chain. Through interactive modeling of bioaccumulation and nest-building with natural and human-made debris, students see how human actions affect entire ecosystems.
Next Generation Science Standards
5-LS2-1: Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
5-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s
resources and environment.
3-LS4-4: Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of
plants and animals that live there may change.​
Grades 3 - 5
Grades 3 - 4
Owl Adaptations
Students explore the adaptations that help owls survive as skilled nocturnal predators by dissecting owl pellets, examining feather structure for silent flight, and modeling owl hearing through a sound-mapping activity.
Next Generation Science Standards
K-LS1-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
4-LS1-1: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
4-LS1-2: Use a model to describe that animals receive information through their senses, process it in the brain, and respond in different ways.
Schoolyard Bird Count
Our program guide leads students on a schoolyard exploration to observe birds and connect with nature using binoculars, listening for calls, and observing birds in their natural habitat. Students collect data and reflect on how humans and animals share the environment.
Next Generation Science Standards
K-LS1-1: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
2-LS4-1: Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some less well, and some cannot survive at all.
4-LS1-2: Use a model to describe how animals receive different types of information through their senses and how they respond to that information.
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Grades K - 5
Mindful Birding
Students practice mindful observation through breathing, quiet observation, and noticing prompts, then apply that focus to collecting field data on bird movement, behavior, and calls.
NGSS & CASEL Standards
2-LS4-1: Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
CASEL: Self Awareness & Self Management
Grades K - 5
Bird Calls, Big Feelings
Students explore how birds use different calls to communicate, then connect bird signals to their own ways of expressing needs, connection, and boundaries through a call-and-response game and role-play.
NGSS & CASEL Standards
1-LS1-2: Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.
4-LS1-2: Use a model to describe that animals receive information through their senses, process it in the brain, and respond in different ways.
Grades K - 4
CASEL: Self Awareness & Relationship Skills
Next Generation Science Standards
Our catalog of lesson plans is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a set of K–12 science content standards that outline what students should know and be able to do at key points in their academic journey. Developed by states to strengthen science education, the NGSS are research-based and reflect the most current understanding of how students learn science best.
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
Some of our lesson plans are aligned with the CASEL Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Framework, which outlines the core competencies students need to develop their social, emotional, and interpersonal skills. These lessons intentionally incorporate skills such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making through hands-on exploration, collaboration, communication, and reflection.