Ask your students what each animal eats and then watch the videos to discover the answers.

• What do caterpillars eat?
• What do cows eat?
• What do toads eat?
• What do giant pandas eat?

A feeder filled with birdseed can attract finches, sparrows, and chickadees for your class to observe. If you have the budget for it, buy a clear plastic feeder that attaches to your window, like this or this. Check your hardware store for other options.

If you’re feeling crafty, transform an old soda bottle into a seed feeder with the instructions here or the gadget sold here.

Insect-eating birds, like woodpeckers, nuthatches, juncos, and jays, like high fat food. To attract them, you can get a suet cake from a hardware store, along with an inexpensive suet holder like this one. Or you make your own with a recipe from Birds & Blooms and pack it in an old cup like this. The birds will be happy either way.

You can elaborate student learning and engagement with Mystery Science mini-lessons.

• Do bats really drink blood? In this mini-lesson, students discover the different kinds of food that bats eat!

If you are in an NGSS state, this mini-lesson supports the DCI LS1.C: Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

Field Trip Possibilities:

• Visit a pond where students can feed the ducks. Though many people feed ducks bread, that’s not the best food for them. We recommend uncooked rolled oats or birdseed. (Both are available in most grocery stores.)

• Visit a farm where they can learn about several animals (including chickens, which scratch like quail).

• Walk in the park or the woods and watch for animals, just as Doug did. Even an urban park is likely to have squirrels, sparrows, pigeons, and maybe a few gophers.