Someone called my attention to more puffin teacher resources, please let me share. At TeachersPayTeachers dot com, there are some puffin resources. Click here to see them.

Everything Puffins Math and Literacy Skills for K-3

Two samples from this set…

On Ramsey Island, they are trying something a little quirky to lure puffins back. They have placed hundreds of puffin decoys to trick the sea clowns to the island. If they work, the puffins will find burrows and nests built just for them by these puffin researchers/conservations. If this works, it’ll be the first puffins there for over a century! =) Let’s hope they succeed. We are rooting you on for certain!

(A video about this on BBC can be see here.)

A wonderful reader (and teacher!) shared this video with me and I wanted to share it with all of you…

We simply can never have ENOUGH puffin coloring pages, can we? I found some new free puffin coloring pages on various sites today. You can download them, print them out and color them. You can even send them to me after scanning them in or email me below to get my mailing address to mail them once they are finished and I will post them to Puffinpalooza. I will do this for an entire class even! The offer is open for anyone interested!

Puffin Coloring Page from Learning Treasures

Click on this small picture to open the page where you can print this to color!

Puffin Coloring page from First School

Click on the image to open the coloring page to print!

 

Puffin Coloring page by My Free Colouring Pages

Click on the image to open the page to print!

Puffin coloring page by Kid Zone

Click on the image to open the puffin coloring page to print!

 

Here are some more puffin coloring pages and some activity worksheets for teachers and classrooms — all by ABC Teach

Puffin coloring page

Click on the image to open the puffin activity page to print!

More puffin activities from ABC Teach click below… (more…)

This puffin means business. =) Two-for-one puffins in this photo with the Tufted Puffin looking at the camera and the Horned Puffin in the background. This photo was taken at the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward. Ironically, the Alaska Sealife Center was funded in part by the settlement from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Interesting.

One very passionate and creative man, Henry Lappen, took his love and knowledge for birds coupled with his passion for performance arts and created an educational artistic experience for all: A Passion For Birds. According to his website,

A Passion for Birds uses masks to inspire an appreciation and understanding of the avian world. Captivated by Henry Lappen’s beautiful masks and comic portrayal of birds, participants learn how animals adapt to their environment, and why they look and act the way they do.

• Birds’ beaks are compared with common tools.
• Feathers and footprints are explored.
• Science facts and anecdotes are shared.

A Passion for Birds covers several of the core curriculum standards for science. A curriculum guide is available.
 Henry’s combined love and knowledge of birds, and his extraordinary ability as a performer make for a very lively show.

Throughout it all, Henry dances among the crowd demonstrating the form and motion of the different species. Learning some specific mime skills, and imaging more, the audience joins him, taking on the character of each bird while gaining additional knowledge about it. Participants don the masks, and soar as Eagles, stalk as Herons and swim as Puffins. Additional topics include nest building, preening and hiding from danger.

One of his birds of choice is the ATLANTIC PUFFIN!!! =) See the photograph below of his puffin mask…

Photo Source: http://www.henrylappen.com/birdgallery/index.html

You can watch a video clip of the performance here. Or if you are in the Massachusetts area in the end of July,

“The Massachusettes Department of Conservation and Recreation will present “A Passion for Birds”, a comic, interactive, educational show, at 11 a.m. Sunday, July 31, at Wachusett Mountain State Reservation 345 Mountain Road. Created and performed by Henry Lappen, “A Passion for Birds” (formerly Birds in Their Habitat) uses realistic, handmade masks to explore how different birds have evolved different shapes and behaviors to adapt to their environment. Participants get a chance to try on the masks and soar as Eagles, swim as Puffins, and stalk as Herons. This program is free and registration is not required. For information, call Matt at (978) 464-2987.”¹

1. http://www.leominsterchamp.com/news/2010-07-16/Your_City/A_PASSION_FOR_BIRDS_PERFORMANCE.html [↩]

Little pufflings often get lost when they leave their burrow, city lights confuse them and they don’t always make it out to sea. They wander into towns and could potentially die. So this town has learned how to help these baby puffins make it out to sea… watch for yourself…

I read this wonderful article giving the history of a biologist who set out to restore the puffin population and succeeded! You should definitely read this article!

Photo Source: Jose Azel

I came across this short little video of two puffins, just hanging around and thought it was worth sharing. It was taken and shared by a man named Andrew on Flickr. He gave me permission to post his pictures on the site so I will! =)

You can watch the video here. I would post it but I cannot. It will open in a new window so you won’t technically leave this site.

Here are the photographs he took:

Photo Source: Andrew Green (http://www.flickr.com/photos/polandeze/)

Photo Source: Andrew Green (http://www.flickr.com/photos/polandeze/)

Photo Source: Andrew Green (http://www.flickr.com/photos/polandeze/)

Enjoy the rest… (more…)

Shetland.org has set up a live Puffin web cam and they are currently waiting for some pufflings to hatch! They are thought to be hatching between June 10th and June 15th! This means we can actually WATCH a puffling being hatched LIVE! How fantastic would that be!? A miracle for certain. And it is not like these little sea clowns won’t amuse us in the meanwhile, right?

Click on the link below or either picture to get to the Puffin cam