Greening Sam and Avery

some great resources

I am putting together an auction item basket for a silent auction at my church and just had to share two resources that I am putting in the basket. I found them at a local birding store and I may just have to bid on my own basket because I really want these books to stay at my house!

The first one is Backyard Birding for Kids by Fran Lee. This is a great kid friendly resource for learning about birds. Tons of information, activities for homemade houses and feeders and even tips of bird journaling. But the point of the book is the field guide sections. And they made it great kids! The birds are not categorized like you would find them in an adult field guide, they are broken down by where you would find them! So there is a "city birds", "country birds", "wetland birds", etc. sections to the book. The pictures are simple but also perfectly accurate and the information that is provided is stuff that kids (and me!) would actually find interesting! Great resource if you have an elementary school aged child that has an interest in birds. 

The second resource is the Kids' Easy-To-Create Wildlife Habitats by Emily Stetson.  I haven't gotten the chance to read this book cover to cover but the skimming that I have done makes it a book that I really want to read more from! First of all I have never before seen so many ideas for homemade, simple bird feeders! I was blown away by all the options. There is just so many different ideas in here for how to include food, water and shelter in your backyard for not only birds but insects, animals and amphibians.  They even make putting a pond in your backyard seem easy! The whole book is just very eye catching. I could see sitting down with an upper elementary aged child and looking through this book for ideas and then having them work on several projects in their own backyard. This would be a great resource if you are interested in doing the Backyard Habitat Program!

 

 

Found any good green resources lately that you would like to share? 

preschool bird lesson

Want to teach preschoolers about the body parts of birds? Try dressing up like one!

Here are some ways you can dress up like bird to teach kids the parts of a bird's body and how even though all birds have the same body parts they can look very different!

Beaks (Heron, Eagle, Cardinal, Mallard Duck)

 

Beaks made with sturdy wire, felt, elastic cord and hot glue. I shaped the wire first to look like the beak and then wrapped it with felt. The elastic cord is used to hold the beak onto a teacher or child's face. 

Feet (Heron, Eagle)

Feet made with sturdy wire, felt, hot glue and old socks. I shaped the wire first to look like feet and then wrapped them with felt. I did have to sew the feet to the socks with a few stitches. The socks were old socks of my husband's. I cut the ankle and tow off the sock so that they could easily be pulled on over an adult or child's shoe. 

Wings (Eagle, Cardinal)

Wings made with cardboard, paint, hot glue, feathers, elastic cord and fabric. The large eagle wing is made to scale from painted cardboard. I then attached an elastic cord to the underneath as a strap for an arm and added a felt handle to the tip. The cardinal wing is also made to scale from fabric wrapped cardboard. I then glued feathers on and an elastic cord on the underneath as a strap for an arm.

Tail Feathers (Eagle, Cardinal)

Tail feathers were made with cardboard, feathers, string and hot glue. I simply cut out the cardboard and glued on the feathers. I then attached a long piece of string to the back so that the tail could be attached. 

Owl Eyes

Owl eyes were made with a child's pair of sunglasses with the lenses popped out, cardboard tubes (toilet paper tubes), felt and hot glue. I glued the tubes to the glasses then surrounded the glasses with felt so that there was no peripheral vision. Even though these are for owls and not an eagle or cardinal I still made these and brought them with. They are a super unique feature of owls and a very fun item for kids to try on. 

I have all the necessary parts to dress up like an eagle and a cardinal. These are two great birds to dress up like because all their body parts are called the same thing (where a duck's beak is called a bill) but they look very different. They are also two birds that preschoolers are likely to be very familiar with. 

What could be a more fun way to teach about bird body parts than dressing up the kid's preschool teacher up like a bird? Super fun! And such a great way to talk about bird body parts!!

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The Nitty Gritty!

This is a lesson that I designed and recently taught at my daughter's school. I started the lesson out by showing the kids pictures of birds and asking them to tell me what body parts make a bird special. We listed out the five main parts of a bird (beak, feet, wings, feathers, tails) and talked about each one (what the bird uses it for and any other special features that body part may have). Then I asked them if all birds look the same; if they all have the same body parts why don't they all look the same? Then I said we had better see just how different birds really look by comparing two birds more closely. Then their preschool teachers were brought in and we dressed them up one body part at a time. I had the students list the body parts and then we added them to the teacher. We talked again about what each body part does and how it looks different from the same body part on the other bird.  After the teachers were all dressed up I let the kids have some time to try on the bird parts and dress up like a bird themselves. 

The kids LOVED this lesson! We had so much fun with this one that I just had to share it.  

helping the birds get ready for spring

 The girls and I decided that with spring coming so fast in WI the birds would need to be making new nests to hold their eggs and might need some help. And we want to make sure that they have plenty of places for good homes. So we are helping them out by making a few bird houses for them! 

We started out with an orange juice jug and a quaker oats container. 

After they were thoroughly covered in paint and dried we decorated them with stickers!

I put modge-podge over the stickers and paint to "seal" it from the weather. Not sure this is the best kind of seal for this project but it works pretty well. 

 Once they were all dried we pushed a wood cooking squirer through the bird houses and then filled the bottom of the houses with grasses and other soft natural materials for the birds to use. 

Then Sam picked out where she wanted to hang her house!

Avery was not ready to hang her's up yet so it still sits on my kitchen counter. I will wait a few more days to let her decide where she wants to hang it. 

But now we wait to see if the birds will find the house and use it to lay some eggs. 

How are you getting ready for spring? Are you helping the animals in your yard get ready for spring?

 

bird feeders

So since our backyard is filled with birds right now the girls and I decided to make a new feeder for them. My first thought had been that I needed to repurpose the winter wreath on my front door (thinking that it was a real evergreen wreath that was browning and needing to come down). Then when I checked the wreath I realized it was fake! No need to turn it into a bird feeder!! But that only changed the end of our process.

We started with some break cut outs that I let get stale. Be sure to punch holes in the break before it gets hard.

Then we covered them with peanut butter.

Avery was much more interested in eating the peanut butter!

Then we covered the peanut butter with seeds.

So since we couldn't use the wreath we grabbed some of the browning evergreen branches that were in our flower pots and used those to hang up the heart shaped bird treats. 

We hung it up right by our feeders so that they would be sure to find it. 

Hoping the birds find this and enjoy the special treat we made for them!

Happy Thursday!

living room bird watching

A few days ago we got  a couple of inches of snow. Now, we can't keep the bird seed in our feeders! We are seeing tons of juncos, house finches, redpolls, chickadees and purple finches. The girls are loving it!

They watch them during meal times and pretty much anytime they are walking past the door! And it has lead to great conversations about why the birds are all coming to the feeders right now.

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The NItty Gritty!

If you are looking for more ways to have fun bird watching with your little ones check out my All About Birds page. I am hoping to do a feeder project with the girls in the next day or so too! Gotta keep those birds happy!!

food as a preschool learning tool

If you are learning about birds why not extend the lesson into lunch time?

Today, the girls and I ate bird's nests for lunch!

We used our forks, okay who am I kidding, mostly our fingers, to form a plate of noodles into a nest. Then we simply added some eggs (cooked carrots carved into an egg shape). The girls loved getting to "play" with their food and then eat it too.

We talked about how hard it must be for birds to use sticks, leaves, mud, feathers and anything else they can find to make their nest. It was fun to learn while we ate!

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The Nitty Gritty!

To expand on this idea and combine it with more learning about birds consider doing one of the following:

1. Read a book about birds or bird nests. In the Nest, Anna Milbourne and Laurence Cleyet-Merle or other preschool bird books that you can find here. 
2. Look for real bird's nests. If you are in winter right now it is a great time to go for a hike or a walk around your neighborhood and look for all the different sizes, shapes and styles of birds nests. With no leaves on the trees they are much easier to spot.
3. Make bird's nests. This can be an indoor activity or an outdoor activity. Check them both out here. 
4. Use pretend play to become birds! Create a nest for the children out of rolled up blankets. Have them pretend to take care of eggs, fly to and from the nest to get food, etc.

Any other ideas to share?

cookies for the birds

 

A few days ago the girls and I got a chance to have a playdate with some friends and make bird cookies.

The kids got to get their hands messy mixing up the "dough" and then got to cut out fun shaped cookies to hang up for the birds.

We have ours hanging up in our backyard by the bird feeders. They would look great hanging as ornaments in a tree but our trees are pretty far away from the windows so the girls can't see the birds as well that far away.

We bake lots of cookies at this house for the holidays so it was a lot of fun to learn how to make cookies for the birds as well!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Have to share the amazing business that Kate, Ben, Asher and River have just outside the Madison area. It is a community supported kitchen that delivers to your doorstep local, seasonal and healthy meals! They just recently set up shop in Mazomanie, WI and are growing super fast. Check out 608!

Now, if you would like to make some bird cookies of your own to give to the feathered friends in your life for Christmas here is the recipe!

1 Cup whole wheat flour

1 Cup oats

1/2 butter/crisco/lard

1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix dry ingredients together. Add butter, mix to make it crumbly.

Add two whole eggs, crush shells and all.

Add a cup of bird seed.

optional: cup of dried or fresh berries

Shape using cookie cutters. Poke hole for string.

Bake at 350 until hard.

I think when doing it again, I would give kids dough to press into the cookie cutters, and make sure to make them thick.

This recipe is Kate's so thanks should go to her! I hope she doesn't mind that I am sharing it!!! 

learning to notice and describe

One of the greatest gifts my parents gave me was something that they described as "good eyes". I notice birds that most people might miss. While hiking I can spot insects, mushrooms and lots of other small details. I can see the beauty in little things as well as the big grand view. 

As a scientist and naturalist it is also really important that I can describe in detail the things that I see. These two traits combined are very helpful! I am hoping that I can pass these two things on to the girls.

We practice the "good eyes" all the time when we are outside. Just pointing out things that are both far away and smaller things that are closer helps them to learn to look in both places all the time.

Anyway, today we got out some of our birding tools to start practicing the skill of describing.We started with a set of bird pictures that are all very different. We played "I Spy". Sam would describe a bird I would have to pick up the picture that I thought she was describing, then we would switch.

We moved on to our winter bird poster which made the "I Spy" game much more difficult. But we focused on the birds with distinguishable features that we could describe and Sam did great.

I let Sam play with the Identiflier too. She was trying to hear the calls of birds that were in our poster. It was fun to see her making connections between two pictures of the same birds and then hearing the bird call as well.

Birds are starting to find our feeders again that we have back out for winter. I am hoping the girls will have as much fun sitting and watching the real birds as they did today looking at the pictures!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Even if you don't have bird flash cards, posters or call machines you can still practice observing and describing. Try checking out some "Seek and Find" or "I Spy" books from the local library. But before your child points out what they have found have them describe it to you. If they struggle with the describing, try guiding them with questions about what it looks like. 

"I Spy" can also be a great game to play when you are killing time somewhere or are in the car!

back to birding

We took some time off from stocking the bird feeders (bird seed is expensive, even when buying it in bulk!) but now that the temps are dropping and moves are starting to come and go more we have once again got our bird feeding station up and running. The girls had a blast this morning watching the birds while they ate breakfast. Sam actually asked if she could take her plate to the floor right by the back door to eat and have a better view!

It is perfect timing that the folks at my work (Aldo Leopold Nature Center) have been passing around (through email) links to these really cool bird videos.

This first one if of a goshawk doing some really cool flying tricks. The tricks that the bird is doing are not things a bird wouldn't normally do in the wild, as the narrator describes, these "tests" are simulating real life flying scenarios that birds of prey do all the time. Some of the things that I talked to/asked Sam and Avery about while we watched this video are

• Pointing out all the different parts of the bird's body; beak, feet, wings, eyes
• Did you see how the bird pulled her wings in to be so small?
• Did you see how she grabbed the tube with her feet and pushed off?
• Did you see how her back feathers spread out so quickly?
• What else do you notice about the bird?
• Do you see how big the birds wings are?

 

This second video is of an eagle owl that is flying straight at a camera (there is some kind of prey or meat that the owl is trying to get). This video is pretty slow at the beginning but if you just keep encouraging your child to watch the end is well worth the wait! Some of the things I pointed out to Sam and Avery in this one,

• Look at how flat the owl's wings are.
• Do you think your arms are as long as the owl's wings?
• Do you see how the owl moves his wings down and then back up?
• Do you see the legs hanging down?
• Look at how the owl's wings bend just like our arms can bend at the elbow.
• Can you see all the stripes and lines on the owl's feathers?
• What color are the owl's eyes?
• Do you see how the owl is spreading is talons out to grab something just like we use our fingers to grab things?

 

I am sure there are tons of great bird videos on YouTube these were just brought to my attention this week because of emails going around at work and the girls enjoyed them so much I thought I would share.

Watch them with your kids and leave me a comment letting me know what they thought!

Happy Birding!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Here are some classroom/home extensions that you could do to go along with these videos -

For the first video you could set up some tunnels and other obstacles for your kids to climb through and talk to them about how they can move their bodies in different ways to move through things. For older kids you could keep making the tunnels smaller and smaller to see how much they can adjust and change their body to fit through something.

For the second video you can measure out 6 feet on the ground or wall with tape. The eagle owl has a 6 foot wing span. Have the children compare their arms to the wing span of the owl. Who is bigger? You could also have the children try to pick up different sized and shaped objects with their toes. Are we able to use our toes as well as the owl can? Why does the owl need to have such strong toes (which are really called talons)?

bird week - bird books

I should have started the week off with this post so that you all could see what we have been reading all week while we were studying birds...oh well.

One book that I found mid-week that I wish we would have had last Sunday when we were studying beaks is Birds Use Their Beaks by Elaine Pascoe. It is part of a series called How & Why?. I liked this book because it talked about all the ways that different birds use their beaks. It also introduced Sam and Avery to some new birds that they didn't know before. Some sections were a bit wordy and detailed but it was very easy to just skip a few sentences to make it more appropriate for my little ones.

Other books that we are enjoying this week -

Robins, Songbirds of Spring by Mia Posada

We are loving this book! It is a non-fiction story book about the life of robins. The pictures are very cute and it rhymes! Sam really liked hearing about what they eat and how they cared for the babies.

In the Nest by Anna Milbourne and Laurence Cleyet-Merle

I talked about this one on Monday.

Since we have so many robins in our backyard I grabbed another robin book at the library.

Robins and Their Chicks by Linda Tagliaferro.

Super simple non-fiction book about robins.  No need to cut sentences out of this one, it is the exact right amount of text and information for preschoolers. This is also a great book because the pictures are real photographs of robins.

I found a board book for Avery that is so cute and was perfect for this week.

Find the Bird by Stephen Cartwright

It doesn't have any text at all and is literally just a small board book with a small bird to find on every page. The pictures are of a small girl and her family with a little grey bird that seems to be following them. The reason that I really like this book is because Avery and I can sit inside, read this book and "practice" looking for birds. Then when we go out on a walk and I tell her to find a bird or look for a bird she knows exactly what I mean!

These last two books we got just because I was really interested in checking them out.

Backyard Bird Watching for Kids by George H. Harrison

This is a great book for kids (and families!) that want to get more involved in backyard birding. It has a great section on common backyard birds. There are good pictures, basic information and the common name. The sections that interested me the most were about what birds like to eat, simple ways to feed birds, exact dimensions and descriptions of how to make bird houses that will attract specific birds, and plants you can have in your yard to attract birds. Really a great book with lots of good information that can help kids have fun learning about birds. 

Birds, Nests, and Eggs by Mel Boring part of the Young Naturalist Field Guides

It was the eggs part of that sentence that interested me the most and the book did not disappoint. I enjoyed learning about the differences in the eggs of different birds. Sam and Avery didn't have much interest in this one but I think for a child slightly older this would be a good one. We have a couple of other books in this series and I have used many of their activities and learning experiments with the girls.

For more books on birds you can go to All About Birds page on the sidebar!

 

That is all I got for tonight and after a long weekend I am going to bed!! GOODNIGHT!