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Bush telegraph
Curriculum links
England and Wales: Writing with a range of purposes, forms, and readers (letter writing).
Scotland: Functional writing; write in an appropriate form and with an adequate vocabulary to communicate key events, facts and ideas (letter writing)
Northern Ireland: Pupils should have opportunities to write in different forms and to develop control of the different writing conventions demanded by these forms. Their writing should include letters.
The Activity
This is an opportunity for pupils to practise letter writing in a fun, fictional way. It involves the weaving of facts about birds into a fictional and imaginative setting.
You will need: bird field guides (eg Collins, Octopus or Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness handbooks), or general nature books such as those by Usborne or Kingfisher. You could also use the internet (see the Words from the Birds activity).
Ask the children to choose a hedgerow bird
Use the books to research their bird.
Write a letter pretending to be this bird, writing to another hedgerow bird.
You could use this opportunity to stress that it is illegal to touch nests and eggs. Birds will abandon their eggs if disturbed.