Happy national Bird day! Birds play a vital part in not only our ecosystem, but the way we function as humans. They influence our food, our plants and help maintain the environment we live in. Today is a wonderful opportunity to teach your children all about birds, as well as introduce them to understanding how everything in our environment connects. Below are a few activities and books that can help in learning all about birds!
Infants
1.Bird peekaboo- This is a simple activity that lets your infant play bird peekaboo.
Things You Will Need:
-Large cardboard
- construction paper
-glue
-Felt fabric sheets
-print out or draw bird cartoon pictures
Start off by printing out or drawing medium sized pictures of cartoon birds. You can also include trees, eggs and other bird related images. Try to keep them simple and easy to recognize. Once you have your images. Glue them onto different colored construction paper and cut them into squares or different shapes for every image. Once your images are cut and pasted, glue them onto your cardboard. Take your felt sheets and cut out corresponding shapes to glue over the images to create fabric lift flaps. Decorate your board in any way you like. Let your infant have fun exploring the board and its flaps. Encourage them to lift the flaps to reveal each bird image, and go over naming what they see.
2. Bird sensory board- Similar to our bird peekaboo board, for this activity, your toddler can explore a bird sensory board.
Things You Will Need:
-large cardboard
-Construction paper
-pipe Cleaners
-Faux craft feathers
-Glue
-Felt fabric sheets
-Twine
-Plastic eggs
-Beads
Start by coming up with your bird design. Similar to our bird shape activity, you can use the felt sheets to cut out different shapes to fit into the outline of a bird. Decorate your bird, and add feathers, googly eyes and whatever you want to it. We suggest using twine to create a "nest" underneath, as well as gluing plastic eggs filled with beads inside. Once you have finished creating and gluing your bird items to the board, now you can let your infant explore! The board can stimulate many of your infant's senses, as they touch the soft feathers, shake the and make noises with the eggs, and grab at the twine. This activity board is guaranteed to keep your infant entertained as well as stimulated and excited!
3. Bird hand print painting- Your infant will make their own hand print bird painting in this cute little activity!
Things You Will Need:
-Paint
-Small sheet of construction paper
Gently press your baby hand into the paint, and then on the paper. Once they are finished, Decorate the imprint to resemble birds. You can encourage them to to continue exploring the paint and different colors, as well as making other paint streaks with their fingers. Once they have, decorate the streaks as well to resemble trees and branches. You and your baby now have some of their very first paintings, as well as hand prints! Your baby can have fun exploring and experimenting in the paint; how it feels in their hand and between their fingers, as well as what happens when they press it onto the paper. This is a great sensory activity that encourages early creative expression.
Toddlers
1.Bird's nest baking activity- In this activity, children will make their own tasty bird's nest recipe
Things You Will Need:
-pretzels
-rice krispie cereal
-marshmallows
-butter
-m&ms
Start off by melting at least 3-4 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan, or in a microwave safe bowl in 15 second intervals. Once your butter has melted add in 2 cups of marshmallows. Stir until the marshmallows have melted into the butter. Next, add 3 cups of your rice cereal. Stir the ingredients together, then place on a tray. Make sure the mixture is somewhat cool, then together, take a small amount and press it into a "nest" shape. Do this until you have no mixture left. Have the children add their m&m toppings, or any toppings of their choice. Let it cool fully, and now you have your rice krispie nest! This is a great activity that let's you talk about birds and their homes, while also learning how to make a new recipe, as well as practice measuring skills. You can substitute the marshmallows with peanut butter, and cereal with pretzels for a more healthy alternative.
2. Playdoh birds- In this activity, your toddler will make their own playdoh birds. You can follow the instructions and ingredients for our own d.i.y playdoh in our previous blog, or you can use store bought.
Things You Will Need:
-Playdoh
-Pipe cleaners
-googly eyes
-glue
-construction paper
-faux feathers
Start by talking to your toddlers about birds and what they are. You can show them pictures, then give them the supplies to create their own. Demonstrate how the supplies can come together to create their birds, and encourage them to be as creative as possible, and ask questions about the bird they're creating, what colors they can use and name and so on. Try to keep the designs simple,and use different shapes to come together to make the birds. Your toddler can have fun rolling and squishing the playdoh, as well as develop an early understanding of the animal, its' name and features. Even after this activity, you can also use it as an introduction, and have your children point out birds when you're out, and encourage them to find out and create more animals that they see and come into contact with.
3. Bird type color matching stickers- For this activity, your children can mix and match different colored birds while making their own stickers!
Things You Will Need:
- construction paper
-scissors
-glue
-tape
-markers
-Velcro
-felt fabric sheets
Start off by drawing multiple multi colored birds on construction paper. Cut out your birds and glue them to your felt fabric sheets. Once you have your birds, carefully cut them in half, and glue velcro to the tops and bottoms of each corresponding parts. Have your children practice matching each part with its color. As they get older, you can incorporate the name of the color and even numbers to match with. This activity helps with color recognition, as well as build on matching skills.
4. Bird sheet- Here is a link to a free printable page that includes a bird coloring page! Courtesy of: michellenewyork.com
Preschool
1. Build a bird nest experiment- In this experiment, children will see how they can build a bird nest for their "eggs".
Things You Will Need:
- Cotton balls
-Pipe cleaners
-faux fur strips
-recycled cardboard
-scissors
-twine
Start by asking the children if they know what bird nests are. Try to show similarities between bird nest and where we sleep and live. Talk about the importance of the nest for the birds, and even encourage how they can help to make sure their nest are safe. These discussions can be some of the early steps in ensuring an awareness and consideration for our environment and other living creatures and their homes. Explain that you will try to make your own nest for their "eggs". Gather your supplies, and demonstrate putting together a nest. You can use anything you want, in any way, as long as the children form the basic concept and shape. You can make a game out of trying to make a sturdy nest and how many eggs the nest can hold. Your children can develop multiple building skills ass they look for ways to create their nest.The more recycled items you use, you can also encourage them on why it's important for not only humans, but animals to find different ways to utilize the things we have.
2. Feather painting- For this activity, children will paint pictures using bird feathers. All you will need, is craft bird feathers, a medium sized paper, and paint! Let your children practice dipping their feathers into the paint and pressing them onto the paper. Encourage them to come up with creative designs, or even make a bird picture using the stamped feathers. This activity is a sensory activity, that let's children feel the fluffy feathers, press their hands into the warm paint, and pinch and press the feathers to make their creations! Each part in the activity can help build small motor skills, as well as improve hand-eye coordination and muscle development. You can also use this activity as an opportunity to talk all about bird's feathers and why they're important to birds, just as fur to other animals and even our own hair and skin as humans.
3. Bird shapes puzzle- In this activity, children can point out and match different shapes to create their own birds!
Things You Will Need:
-felt fabric sheets (or construction paper) of various colors
-scissors
-markers
Start by drawing out the outline of a bird shape. Using this outline, draw shapes within the outline. Trace these shapes onto your felt, and cut them out. You can also have your children practice these steps carefully. Once you're finished, have the children try to fit the shapes onto a clean bird outline. In addition to the bird, you can also make a tree, egg and other shaped outlines you can think of. This is a great activity that lets your children practice matching as they build on color and shape recognition skills. They can have fun creating their birds and decorating where they live.
4. Bird coloring number sheet- Here is a link to a free printable sheet that includes a bird number coloring activity! Courtesy of: Nahj2018.org
School age
1. D.I.Y. Bird feeder- In this activity, children will create their very own bird feeders!
Things You Will Need:
-yarn or twine
- plastic bottle
-Popsicle sticks
-sunflower seeds
-peanut butter
-cracked corn
-cheerios
-scissors
-glue
Start off by taking your plastic bottle and cutting small holes in it. We suggest at least 3 holes, that go through the entire bottle, and large enough to fit your popsicle sticks in. If you don't want to use a plastic bottle, you can also use recycled milk cartons or cardboard tubes. Carefully fill your bottle with a mixture of seeds and other food items for the birds. Stick your popsicle sticks in each hole all the way through as you fill the bottle; leaving space at the top. Once you have finished, glue some twine at each side of the bottle so that you can hang your feeder. This activity is a great way to get your children interested in nature, as well as help build something and feed the animals.
2. Egg matching vocabulary- In this activity, children can have fun matching and creating different words as they race to fill up the birds nest!
Things You Will Need:
-Markers
-construction paper
-Scissors
-Paper plates
-tape
Start by having the children create their baskets for their eggs. You can do this by taking your paper plates and cutting them in half. Take your brown construction paper and cut it into strips. Let the children color in the plate then tape or glue your strips to the front. As they decorate, you can ask them questions about birds and their nest. Why the birds make nest, what are the nest for, and other questions can help introduce your children to how birds live. When they're finished, it's time for the eggs. Carefully write out a list of words related to birds that your children can think of. This can include words such as "chirp", "egg", "beak", "tree", "feathers", "seeds", "worms", and "nest". Once they have their list, break the words into parts. Take multiple sheets of different colored construction paper and trace or draw an egg shape. Cut the eggs out, then cut them in half. Write the parts of the words on different parts of the eggs. See if the children can match the words to their correct egg parts to fill up their nest. You can make it a game, and see who can fill up the nest first. You can also come up with as many words, and mix and match the parts to create new words!
3. bird vocab- Here is a link to a free printable sheet that includes a bird vocabulary activity! courtesy of: thoughtcom.com
4. Bird research - For this activity, children will conduct their own research all about birds. You can start by having them put together a list of questions they might have about birds. This can include questions such as:
- What do birds eat?
-Why can birds fly
-Why do some birds live in trees
-What do birds do?
-Why do birds lay eggs?
-What are some different types of birds? Where do they live?
This activity is a great opportunity for children to be as inquisitive as possible, while encouraged to look for answers to their own questions.
Here are a few links to some sites that can help with their research: https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/news/why-we-need-birds-far-more-they-need-us
Here are a few helpful books all about birds!
1. Hello, World! Birds by Jill McDonald
2. Bay's First Book of Birds & Colors by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes
3. 100 Facts Birds by Jimmy Johnson
4. What's Up? (Flip Flap Pop-Up) by Olivia Cosneau