Make a Timeline From Egg to Sky Hatch Year 2005 Overview: Students create a timeline by collecting dates and facts, then drawing pictures to illustrate key events from the time the chicks hatched last spring to the end of their first migration. They begin to grasp the birds' life cycle, the efforts that go into costume-rearing and training, the extraordinary process and risks of a human-assisted migration, and the wealth of research information available to them on the Web. Background For the first time in over a hundred years, endangered Whooping cranes are flying the skies of Eastern and Midwestern North America. Their story began as it does for all birds, inside earthbound eggs. In a few short weeks, the chicks grow into the tallest birds in North America. These chosen birds will take off on a human-led ultralight migration this fall, joining their pioneer ancestral cousins reintroduced this way in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. Each autumn from 2001 until 2005 and perhaps beyond, ultralight airplanes acting as stand-in "parents" will lead a special few of the year's captive-bred young chicks to their new wintering site in Florida. Then we all watch and wait! Will the young cranes survive the winter on their own? Come spring, will they migrate on their own back to their summer home in Wisconsin? Using radio and also satellite technology, we'll track the young crane-kids' first solo journey north next spring. Celebrate year five of this history-making reintroduction of an endangered species back into territory where were gone for over a century! Activity Share this historic conservation news with your school and community by creating a timeline that follows the cranes from egg to sky and the chicks' first migration. Collect dates and facts and draw pictures to illustrate events from the time the chicks hatched last spring. During October and November our reports will be posted every day of the migration! You can download those daily reports to complete your timeline--and then join Journey North next spring to see if and when these chicks return to Wisconsin, all on their own! Make your timeline into a public display by creating it on a long wall or in a hallway. Use a string 14 meters long and mark off one meter per month (April 2005 through May 2006). Month by month, you'll note highlights in the first year of the lives of the 2005 chicks—from hatching through completion of their first northward migration. When school starts, we'll post Friday e-mail reports with downloadable, printable booklets. Reading these short, lively booklets helps broaden background knowledge about the project and the chicks' lives so far. For Hatch Year 2005 chicks, catch up on pre-migration and other Key Timeline Events, adding them to your timeline. Beginning in October (when the journey begins on Migration Day 1), follow daily migration reports complete with maps and photos. Read the brief reports. Download and print the photos provided and make your own captions and attach to your timeline at the corresponding dates. Do your own research and add background information to your display. To begin, visit the Whooping Crane Facts and Lessons, Activities and Information sections of this Web site. Learn all about captive breeding, imprinting, crane calls, flight formation and more! Try This! Extensions Keep an "Endangered Species Reintroduction Journal." The daily updates posted during migration always include open-ended journaling questions for students to think and write about. Crane Migration Journal templates are available here. Younger students might want to keep a vocabulary list. Watch your vocabulary grow as the cranes grow! (See Glossary.) If you made a classroom timeline with this project for the inaugural year 2001, the second year 2002, the third year 2003, or the the fourth year 2004, put them up. As the 2005 timeline grows, compare and contrast milestones, differences, and similarities. Or, track along with our Migration Comparison Chart. Watch for opportunities to add artifacts or models to your display area. For example, make a life-sized crane. For demonstration purposes, include items whose weight matches the weight of a real crane (11-16 pounds). Or stretch a 7-foot rope (a whooper's actual wingspan) along the wall and compare your "wingspan" with a whooper's. In Collaboration with Operation Migration and the entire Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership Copyright 2001-2006 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form