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In conjunction with Newspaper in Education, our students at Chisholm Elementary School completed a fourteen week study on the endangered whooping crane. With the easy access we have to The Daytona Beach News-Journal we were able to have a classroom set of papers delivered each Monday in which the “Endangered” serial story written by local author Marian Strong Tomblin, and illustrated by Tom Bull, appeared. The set of articles were both enjoyable and educational to our students. I compiled a notebook with all fourteen “Endangered” articles and have it available for students to review and check out.

Along with the weekly article, our students viewed a segment on the National Geographic website, explaining the preparation and process of the cranes migration to Florida. Our students tracked the progress of the migration on a map colored by our students on a bulletin board in our media center. Along with the map, students colored large whooping cranes and a large ultralight plane. Students took notes and were given a short quiz after the video. A highlight of the study was the article in the Local section of The News-Journal titled “Return to Flight.” Many of our students recognized this article from their home delivery. It was heart warming to see the excitement throughout this study. The morning I announced the birds had landed in Florida, with their winter migration complete, excitement filled each class. I believe we all felt an attachment to these birds as we tracked their 7 state, 1,250 mile journey. At the completion of this study, our students were given the opportunity to take a 10 question “reading counts” quiz on the “Endangered” story from The News-Journal. These points helped some students achieve a milestone which earned them free books, ice cream coupons, a pizza party and many other fun prizes.

I was able to accomplish my main goal, which was teaching our students different library resources available to them. We used the encyclopedia to research the whooping crane, the atlas to track the birds, the Internet to learn about “Operation Migration,” and the newspaper to enjoy the weekly story.

Throughout the fourteen week study, many students thought they saw a sighting of these endangered birds. While it is possible they were not whooping cranes, this made me realize the study was a huge success. Our students were very aware of the birds and were discussing their endangerment, the media center project and The News-Journal articles with their families. I know this education project will stay with the students at Chisholm Elementary School for a lifetime.

Deb Sobien
Media Specialist
Chisholm Elementary School

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