1. Teacher Guide
This lesson is designed to teach kids to ask a critical thinking question that you can’t just put into a search box to solve. To do that, we encourage them with smaller questions that search can help them answer. Make sure that you read the notes for each slide: they not only give you teaching tips but also provide answers and hints so you can help the kids if they are having trouble.
Remember, you can always send feedback to the Bing in the Classroom team at You can learn more about the program at bing.com/classroom and follow the daily lessons on our Partners In Learning site.
Want to extend today’s lesson? Consider using Skype in the Classroom to arrange for your class to chat with another class in today’s location. And if you are using Windows 8, you can also use the Bing apps to learn more about this location and topic; the Travel and News apps in particular make great teaching tools.
Nell Bang-Jensen is a teacher and theater artist living in Philadelphia, PA. Her passion for arts education has led her to a variety of roles including developing curriculum for Philadelphia Young Playwrights and teaching at numerous theaters and schools around the city. She works with playwrights from ages four to ninety on developing new work and is especially interested in alternative literacies and theater for social change. A graduate of Swarthmore College, she currently works in the Artistic Department of the Wilma Theater and, in addition to teaching, is a freelance actor and dramaturg. In 2011, Nell was named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and spent her fellowship year traveling to seven countries studying how people get their names.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading: Informational Text
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3 Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.7 Use information gained from illustrations (e.g., maps, photographs) and the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text (e.g., where, when, why, and how key events occur).

2. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?
© Barry Hamilton/Corbis
Having this up as kids come in is a great settle down activity. You can start class by asking them for thoughts about the picture or about ideas on how they could solve the question of the day.

3. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?
If you want to be that person at the park, remind your friends that it’s a Canada goose, not a Canadian goose. And despite their name, many Canada geese spend only part of their lives in the Great White North. Those who migrate often make it to the southern United States and even northern Mexico. It was likely during that winter migration when this family was found paddling in the waters of Hill Lake, just east of Little Rock, Arkansas. Since it’s now June, they’re probably back up somewhere in Canada now, enjoying a temperate summer.
Depending on time, you can either have students read this silently to themselves, have one of them read out loud, or read it out loud yourself.

4. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?1
Web Search
What does “migrate” mean? Why do Canada geese migrate? 2
Map Search
Where do Canada geese migrate? Based on these journeys on a map, what can you guess about the climates that they’re going towards or away from? 3
How do Canada geese physically prepare for their migration? 4
Without using maps, how do Canada geese know how to get to their destinations? 5
How do Canada geese fly in groups? How does this particular formation help them?
There are a couple of ways to use this slide, depending on how much technology you have in your classroom. You can have students find answers on their own, divide them into teams to have them do all the questions competitively, or have each team find the answer to a different question and then come back together. If you’re doing teams, it is often wise to assign them roles (one person typing, one person who is in charge of sharing back the answer, etc.)

5. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?5
Minutes
You can adjust this based on how much time you want to give kids. If a group isn’t able to answer in 5 minutes, you can give them the opportunity to update at the end of class or extend time.

6. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?1
Web Search
What does “migrate” mean? Why do Canada geese migrate? 2
Map Search
Where do Canada geese migrate? Based on these journeys on a map, what can you guess about the climates that they’re going towards or away from? 3
How do Canada geese physically prepare for their migration? 4
Without using maps, how do Canada geese know how to get to their destinations? 5
How do Canada geese fly in groups? How does this particular formation help them?
You can ask the students verbally or let one of them come up and insert the answer or show how they got it. This way, you also have a record that you can keep as a class and share with parents, others.

7. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?1
Web Search
What does “migrate” mean? Why do Canada geese migrate?
(Possible queries: “define: migrate”, “what is migration?”, “why do Canada geese migrate?”).
From and
To migrate is to pass periodically from one region or climate to another, as certain birds, fishes, and animals. Geese migrate first and foremost as a matter of survival for their species and also as a way to cope for living on environments that are unfit for them to live in the whole year round. The survival of these animals will highly depend on moving to living conditions that are more hospitable. They head south if the cold winter season is up to look for food and keep warm and return back to the north and more temperate regions during mating and breeding time.

8. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?2
Map Search
Where do Canada geese migrate? Based on these journeys on a map, what can you guess about the climates that they’re going towards or away from?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Images: map Canada geese migration”, “Bing/Images: Canada geese migration routes”).
Students should find an image online that shows these migration routes, such as the one found here: They should think about how the northern and southern climates differ based on what they know about these parts of the world. They might hypothesize, for example, that the climate in northern Canada would be much drier and colder than the climate in the southern part of the United States and Central America.

9. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?3
Web Search
How do Canada geese physically prepare for their migration?
(Possible queries: “Canada geese preparation for migration?”, “how do Canada geese prepare to migrate?”).
From
Molting is the act of shedding old flight feathers and growing new feathers. Each summer, adult geese shed their old flight feathers and begin to grow new ones. During this three- to four-week period, the birds are unable to fly. An adult goose's molting period often coincides with the birth of goslings. Eggs are often laid in March or April and by the end of the summer, babies have grown their first set of flight feathers, according to the Humane Society of America's website.

10. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?4
Web Search
Without using maps, how do Canada geese know how to get to their destinations?
(Possible queries: “how do Canada geese migrate?”, “how do birds navigate migration routes?”).
From
Migration Navigation
One of the greatest mysteries of migration is exactly how birds find their way from one location to the next. Scientific studies have been done on a number of bird species, and different techniques of bird navigation have been discovered.
Magnetic Sensing: Many birds have special chemicals or compounds in their brains, eyes or bills that help them sense the Earth's magnetic field. This helps the birds orient themselves for long journeys. Geographic Mapping: Because birds follow the same migration routes from year to year, their keen eyesight allows them to map their journey by different landforms and geographic features such as rivers, coastlines and mountain ranges.
Star Orientation: For birds that migrate at night, star positions and the orientation of constellations can provide necessary navigation directions. During the day, birds also use the sun to navigate.
Learned Routes: Some bird species, such as sandhill cranes and snow geese, learn migration routes from their parents and other adult birds in the flock. Once learned, younger birds can travel the route successfully themselves.

11. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?5
Web Search
How do Canada geese fly in groups? How does this particular formation help them?
(Possible queries: “Canada geese migration formation”, “how do Canada geese migrate in groups?”).
From
Scientists have determined that the V-shaped formation that geese use when migrating serves two important purposes:
First, it conserves their energy. Each bird flies slightly above the bird in front of him, resulting in a reduction of wind resistance. The birds take turns being in the front, falling back when they get tired. In this way, the geese can fly for a long time before they must stop for rest. The authors of a 2001 Nature article stated that pelicans that fly alone beat their wings more frequently and have higher heart rates than those that fly in formation. It follows that birds that fly in formation glide more often and reduce energy expenditure (Weimerskirch, 2001).
The second benefit to the V formation is that it is easy to keep track of every bird in the group. Flying in formation may assist with the communication and coordination within the group. Fighter pilots often use this formation for the same reason.

12. How are Canada geese able to migrate such far distances?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. Students should be able to cite several different reasons why Canada geese are able to migrate such far distances, from the fact that they fly in a V formation to support each other and have the opportunity to rest, to the ways in which they navigate their routes through geographic mapping and star orientation, to the new feathers they grow specifically for this flight.