Getting Started with
Seabirds: Feathered Ocean Mariners

1. Read the Background for Teachers essay. It contains more in-depth information that will help you answer questions and guide students’ exploration.
2. Familiarize yourself with the For Kids content for “Seabirds: Feathered Ocean Mariners.”
3. Review the classroom- and field-based hands-on activities in Teacher-Led Activities and choose the ones suited to your curricular needs and classroom circumstances.
4. Introduce the topic with a discussion. Here are some suggested discussion-starters:
• What is a seabird? Can you name some?
• How do you think seabirds are different from land birds?
• What kinds of adaptations might seabirds have so they can feed and live away from land for months at a time?
• Where do seabirds lay eggs and raise chicks?
• What do you think are some threats to seabirds around the world?
5. Review these topic-specific vocabulary words or have students define them as they discover them in context in the “Seabirds: Feathered Ocean Mariners” student magazine (PDF):
   
   adaptation
   adapted
   advantage
   bird steward
   burrow
   climate change
   colony
   contraption
   decoy
   disadvantage
   equivalent
   fossil fuel
   

   habitat
   hemisphere
   hover
   krill
   mammal
   marine
   mariner
   migrate
   migration
   navigate
   nestling
   polar
   

   populate
   predator
   propel
   scrape
   seabird
   species
   squid
   threat
   threatened
   torpedo
   tundra
   vegetation
   
   Definitions for all vocabulary words can be found in the online Naturalist’s Glossary.
6. With the whole class or in small groups, review the Audubon Adventures student magazine, “Seabirds: Feathered Ocean Mariners,” and other student content that you’ve incorporated into your teaching or that students have explored on their own.
7. Do the hands-on activities you’ve selected, and follow up with review and discussion.
8. Download the Assessment questions and answer key as a tool for evaluating students’ learning with “Seabirds: Feathered Ocean Mariners.”
9. Extend learning with print, online, and video resources found in the Naturalist’s Bibliography.

Photo: Jean Hall.