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Week 1 · Nature Detectives

Reading

Nonfiction field guides

Read for information; identify three species using a guide.

Pick your age

5-day pacing

Today's focus: learn the concept.

The Hook

Field guides are picture books for explorers! Today you'll learn to use one like a real ranger.

The Big Idea

Books for finding things use PICTURES and LABELS, not stories.

Learn

A field guide shows pictures of animals or plants with words that tell you their NAME and where they live.

You don't read it front-to-back — you look up what you saw.

See It

Parts of a field-guide page

┌─────────────┐
│   🐦 ROBIN   │  ← name
│   (picture)  │
│ Red belly    │  ← clues
│ Lives: yards │  ← where
└─────────────┘

Try It (in the app)

Match bird to clue

Match game
Red belly, hops on lawns
Bright blue, loud
Black and white, drums on trees

Worksheet

Fill in here, or print a blank copy

My First Species Card

Look out a window for 10 minutes. Draw and name what you see.

  1. Animal I saw:
  2. What COLORS it had:
  3. Where I saw it:
  4. Picture: (draw on back)

Hands-On Build

Backyard scout patch

Materials

  • ·Paper
  • ·Crayons
  • ·Tape

Steps

  1. 01Draw a patch shape.
  2. 02Color in your best bird sighting.
  3. 03Tape it to your shirt and earn the patch by spotting 3 different birds this week.

Mission Tie-In

Use your field-guide skill on the Missing Ducklings — identify the duck species from a picture.

Wrap-Up Discussion

  • ?What was the easiest bird to spot?
  • ?What helped you tell two birds apart?