A detailed Teacher’s Guide for Cooper and Packrat; Mystery of the Eagle’s Nest, has been created by Maine’s 2013 Teacher of the Year, Shannon Shanning. She tested and piloted the ideas and projects in her all-inclusive classroom, with seventh and eighth grade students, all while working on her Masters.
Mystery Of The Eagles Nest ~ Teaching Guide
The guide can also be used on younger grades with just a little bit of tweaking, especially the vocabulary lists and comprehension questions.
NOTE: Spring 2026, I’m teaching Eagle’s Nest in the classroom and will be updating this page as I go with new worksheets, links, plotting sheets and and sketch note information. Please check back often for new information.
Come visit us again for updates, and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
MY FAVORITE LESSONS
CONNECTING STUDENTS TO
MYSTERY OF THE EAGLE’S NEST
BEFORE READING: PRIME THE PUMP
What do your students already know about the subject matter? Before launching into the book, read the synopsis for Mystery of the Eagle’s Nest aloud. As a class, or individually, ask students to think on what they already know about eagles, camping, friendships, geo-caching and hiking using past personal and learning experiences. Then ask them to complete a list of their knowledge, following the letters of the alphabet from A through Z using this ABC Organizer Worksheet.
They would write one word or a phrase for each letter.
For example:
A = Ammo box (geocache box)
B = beak
C = compass
D = direction
Afterward, have students share aloud their knowledge, sparking discussion.
WHAT IS GEOCACHING ANYWAY?
Research geocaching with your students so they will better understand the concept. You can do this by reading aloud my letter on geocaching (located at the back of the book), and visiting Geocache.com with them.
*** Watch the Geocaching Basics or Geocaching 101 videos. You can also show some of the Creative Geocache videos which show elaborate puzzles and underwater caches.
*** Set up your own geocache course on school grounds. You can keep this a private course, by hiding caches and putting the coordinates to the next cache inside the box they find. You can use a hand-held hiking GPS to accomplish this, or the HandyGPS app on your phone. Afterward, ask students to write about their favorite find, and how it felt to find it.
*** Explain Latitude and Longitude coordinates as they relate to geocaching and the world around us.
EAGLE RESEARCH
Research eagles with your students in a variety of ways:
*** Ask them what they already know. Then dig into websites such as All About Birds to find more! Or use a game such as Kahoot to teach them.
*** Make a list of all the dangers to eagles. (i.e. raccoons, wind turbines, lead sinkers, humans) Make another list of the ways humans are helping them. (rehabilitation centers, banning lead sinkers, educating people on them) Compare and contrast your lists. Use rehabilitation organizations such as Avian Haven to help you.
*** In the spring, you can watch nesting eagles live on an eagle cam! One of our classroom favorites is Friends of Big Bear Valley Live Eagle Cam: Jackie and Shadow. It isn’t springtime? No worries! They have videos of past nesting eagles on their site.
*** In this book, Cooper and Packrat watch a raven dive bomb the eagle’s nest. How can this be? Isn’t the raven a smaller bird? Not as fierce as an eagle? Compare and contrast information about Ravens and Eagles using a Venn Diagram. We directed students to the appropriate information websites using QR codes to make it more interactive and fun.
LET’S GET STARTED!
Try Sketch Notes
Shannon and I enjoy using Sketch Notes within our Inclusive Classroom. Creating a themed worksheet for students to fill out for each chapter, students doodle big events as we read. They keep the sheets and are allowed to look back on them during checkpoints and tests, and especially when we need to recap the last chapter read after a long weekend.
We model how to draw notes based on the text – either on the white board, or large paper to keep it for recaps. We carefully explain that the main rule of sketch notes is to only draw what you hear. So if we’re reading about ice fishing, we need to draw what the characters are seeing or doing if it is important to the story. You’ll notice below, that Shannon and I draw the big events and number them in order. We also use words and colors, and encourage our readers to do so as well. Here are our sample sketch notes from Chapters 1 through 4.
Sketch notes are really fun to do! The drawings don’t need to be too detailed, stick figures can be quite animated! I personally search on-line for “fancy stick figures” before launching into a new book. Give it a try!
Popcorn Recaps!
Before reading your next chapter, try Popcorn Recaps. Students pull out their sketch notes from the chapter(s) before. Have them study their sketches, then choose their favorite event by putting a finger it. Shannon randomly pulls the names of students to share their event. After everyone has shared, she ran through all the events, putting them in order.
Of course, this can be done without sketch notes as well.
READ BY THE CAMPFIRE
Bring in hot chocolate, and the makings for indoor s’mores (grahams, Fluffernutter and Hershey’s Mini’s)
Build a campfire using real, or pretend logs (rolled construction paper, stuffed with newspaper), a short string of lights, and red/yellow/orange tissue paper.
Dim the lights, push back the desks and read.
