Teacher Tips for Whooping Crane Comeback
Print-and-Fold Instructions
Web "Slide Show" Version of Booklet

BEFORE READING
Build Background: Some of your students may have seen the motion picture Fly Away Home. If not, view clips (or show the entire film!) before launching your migration study. It's an exciting, real-world connection to the saving of this endangered species through human-assisted migration.
 
DURING READING
Get Meaning From Photos. Discuss:
• Why is the plane also called a trike?
Why do you suppose any humans near these cranes are wearing baggy white costumes?
• Why are role models of living adult Whooping cranes so important to the chicks hatched in captivity for this migration project?
 
AFTER READING: EXTEND LEARNING


Start a Journal for the questions that will appear in the booklets and upcoming reports. Start with these “big” questions and add thoughts as the migration unfolds:
1. Why is the word “bold” used to describe this project?
2. What are the risks, and to whom?

Make Connections: Young cranes must be taught where to migrate, but not how to fly. They are genetically programmed to fly; they do it by instinct. What things do YOU do by instinct? What things did you need to be taught?

Get the History: In 1954 the long-sought Whooping Crane nesting grounds were discovered, quite by accident, along the northern edge of Canada's vast Wood Buffalo National park. The discovery was key to saving this endangered species, and to the establishment of the new Eastern flock through ultralight-led migraitons. Read the story in Journey North's slide show: The Big Egg Hunt: Saving Whooping Cranes


Journey North is pleased to feature this educational adventure made possible by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP).