“Chester the Nester Laid an Egg”

How the Bald Eagle became our National Symbol

Patricia Touchette Hutchinson

Arizona Geographic Alliance

1st grade

1-2 class periods

National Geography StandardsELEMENT One: The World in Spatial Terms

1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.

ELEMENT TWO: PEOPLE AND PLACES

4. The physical and human characteristics of places.

Arizona Geography Strand

Concept 1: The World in Spatial Terms

PO 2. Identify characteristics of maps and globes:a. compass roseb. symbols

c. map key/legendConcept 2: Places and RegionsPO 3. Recognize through images of content studied (e.g., Egypt, Arizona, local community) that places have distinct characteristics

Other Arizona Standards

Strand 1: American History

Concept 3: Exploration and Colonization

PO 4. Recognize that the United States began as the Thirteen Colonies ruled by England

Concept 4: Revolution and New Nation 1700s – 1820

PO 2. Retell stories to describe past events, people, and places.

Strand 3: Civics

Concept 1: Foundations of Government

PO 1. Identify national symbols and monuments that represent American democracy and values:

a. American flag

b. Bald Eagle

c. Statue of Liberty

d. White House

e. Washington Monument

ELA Common Core StandardsReadingInformational Text Key Ideas and Details1.RL.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

Writing LanguageConventions of Standard English1.L.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar

and usage when writing or speaking.a. Print all upper- and lowercase letters.b. Use common, proper, and possessive nouns.

c. Use singular and plural nouns with matching verbs in basic sentences (e.g., He hops; we hop).

d. Use personal, possessive, and indefinite pronouns (e.g., I, me, my; they, them, their; anyone, everything).

e. Use verbs to convey a sense of past, present, and futuref. Use frequently occurring adjectives. g. Use frequently occurring conjunctions (e.g., and, but, or, so, because).

h. Use determiners (e.g., articles, demonstratives).

Overview

After the Revolutionary War, the Founding Fathers of our country met in Philadelphia to create a national Constitution, a document of rights and responsibilities for our country, which would set us onto the path of becoming the United States of America.

Purpose

In this lesson students will learn, through the reading of a fictional story, how the Bald Eagle reflects characteristics that also represent this country.

Materials

Chester the Nester Laid an Egg Power PointThe American Bald Eagle worksheet and

answer keyImages or actual symbols to show students

(stop sign, peace symbol, cross, women and men restroom icons, etc.)

American Colonies maps Colored pencils for map work Copy of the Constitution

Objectives:

The student will be able to: 1. Understand the difference between a true story and historical fiction.2. Recognize the 13 colonies on a map3. Describe the attributes of the American bald eagle as a symbol

Procedures

SESSION ONE

1. Anticipatory Set: Ask, “What does the word symbol mean?” Have students share answers. Then explain a symbol represents something. Show a few images or actual symbols. Again, have students share answers. Then share an image of the bald eagle by showing the first slide of the Power Point. Ask, “Why do you suppose the bald eagle is a symbol and why would he be the symbol for our country?”

2. Continue the lesson by reading the short story on the Power Point called Chester the Nester Laid an Egg.

Chester the Nester Laid an EggChester the Nester Laid an Egg“How the Bald Eagle Became Our National Symbol“How the Bald Eagle Became Our National Symbol””

The year was 1787. It had been a busy year for the young

country. But it was also busy in the forest. This was the year

that Chester the Nester laid an egg.

Chester lived in the beautifulforests of Central Pennsylvania.

Chester was a very proud parent, and he carefully

watched over his young egg.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Chester sat on the egg and watched it carefully day and

night. He wanted to be a good father.

Meanwhile, down in the city of Philadelphia, another group of Fathers were

nurturing and protecting another young baby. This

baby was called the Constitution. This idea

would help us become a strong and powerful

country.

We had won a war againstEngland, but now we

needed a government.

Chester knew that his egg would become a fine young bird. He would become a young bald eagle that would make

a parent proud.

The birdwould have excellent vision. would be large, and strong,

and command attention.

He would be fearless.he would represent freedom.He would become a powerful

leader of the forest.

Our Founding Fathers also had a very important baby toProtect--our country. The Constitution,which is the set of

rules that our country follows, was accepted on September 13, 1788, and the United States of America

came to life.

Chester’s egg grew and grew.It grew bigger and stronger.

The baby eagle inside the eggshell knew that he had important things to do!

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Then one day the little eagle hatched!

The young eagle grew strong. One day he decided it was time to try

his wings. So he bravely pushed off the nest. He headed into the morning sunshine and flew south toward Philadelphia, In the distance he saw a beautiful building. The young eagle decided to fly around it.

As he circled the roof he saw a group of men looking up at thesky and waving their hands in

excitement. The young bald eaglethought he could hear the words, “our national symbol.”

But it was late and Chester would get worried. The young eagle

returned to the forest.

The Founding Fathers of the United States in 1782 chose the American Bald Eagle as our national symbol because unlike other eagle

species, the Bald Eagle alone is native to the United States. The bald eagle was first shown on the U.S. Great Seal in 1782.

Maybe this is Chester the Nester’s son?

U.S. Constitution

Painting of Founding Fathers

The End

3. Ask students if they think this is a true story? Why or why not. Inform students that this is a fictional story about Chester.

4. Ask the students if they have any idea what fiction means. (They should come up with some version of make believe.) Then ask what part of the story is fiction? (Chester laying an egg, there was a father eagle called Chester, the baby flew around Philadelphia, etc.)

5. Is some of the information in the story true? (our country began with Founding Fathers creating a Constitution, the correct years of our country beginning, the bald eagle is the national symbol, etc.) If so, then this is called historical fiction. Historical fiction is a pretend story based on true events. In this story, the Founding Fathers and the Constitution are true events that happened in Philadelphia.

6. Read the story again. Next have the students identify characteristics of the bald eagle that are like our American government. List these on the board. (strong, fearless, powerful, large, command attention, leader, grows bigger, important, brave)

7. Distribute the writing exercise. The students are to use the words in the word box to fill in the blanks. Remind students to follow the conventions of proper letter shape, spelling, and capitalization.

SESSION TWO

8. Distribute the map of the map of American colonies and colored pencils to each student. Tell students how we won a war against England to become our own country rather than belong to England. Project the map of the 13 colonies. Talk about the colonies and how they were divided into 3 regions. Have them look at the legend and figure out where the regions would be. Students will then circle the title with red colored pencil, the legend area with a green colored pencil, and the compass rose with the orange colored pencil.

Assessment

Social Studies and Reading:Students will correctly fill in 4 of the 6 statements on the writing page in order to obtain mastery.Students will accurately circle the American Colonies map. Mastery will be considered all 3 areas circled correctly.

Writing:Students will capitalize all proper nouns and spell thewords correctly. Mastery will be considered 80% (6 blanks) or higher.

Extensions

Go to the National Archives and the

Constitution website. Just viewing and

Talking about it for this age group is a good

extension

Sources

• Hutchinson, Patricia. Chester the Nester Laid an Egg. Arizona Geographic Alliance. 2012.

• Images of eagles from: The Open Clipart Library (OCAL) is the largest collaborative community that creates, shares and remixes clipart. All clipart is released to the public domain and may be used in any project for free with no restrictions.

• Constitution: www.archives.gov/nae/visit/• Founding Fathers:

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/charters_of_freedom_zoom_pages/charters_of_freedom_zoom_6.2.1.html