The classroom set for teaching at the School for the Blind

What is “Yardstick Birds”?
These are common birds that we can see and hear throughout the year.  These five species represent different sizes which serve as a reference point or “yardstick” for those that learn by touch.  By learning the size of these birds, the door can be opened to teaching about other birds and using the Yardstick birds as a point of reference.

1.  Japanese White-eye    the smallest bird in the yard, about 10cm
2.  Sparrow               the most common bird, about 13cm
3.  White Wagtail         the bird increasing the number in the city, about 20cm
4. Eastern Turtle Dove    the bird with distinctive voice, 30cm
5.  Carrion Crow          the bird with voice we hear everywhere, 50cm

In 2011, I started teaching in a class at a school for the blind using the “Touch Carvings of Yardstick Birds”.  For the vision impaired, wild birds are hard to touch and understand.  The wood carvings cannot convey the soft, fluffiness of real birds, but they can teach them the difference in shapes, sizes and beak forms, and the name of each feather.  Being carved with ornithological accuracy, my “Touch Carvings” have the merit which can tell them the shape more clearly than touching the staffed birds. 

The Touch Carvings are more hygienic and durable than touching the staffed birds.  They are a more suitable material for this use.  Memorizing these “Yardstick Birds” is the introduction to the world of birds, this allows the fundamental knowledge needed to understand them.  I hope that these can be used in the future for other schools as well.