Three Little Birds

For almost three weeks Art and Soul has been bird sitting three little birds.

Tomorrow these little friends go back home, but throughout there time at school they have been well loved and have inspired many projects.

Because the children have taken such an interest in birds, and in keeping with the reggio philosophy, even though our friends are going home, I feel the bird project will continue to have life and thrive. 

For the first couple days the children enjoyed visiting the birds and getting to know there ways.

Some initial comments were:

EB: "look one curled their toes."

Me: "Why do you think they do that"

EB: "Because they can"

MK: "They're not much a talkers.  Birds can tweet but not talk."

TM:"I saw them kissing."

EB: "awe, they're so cute!"

One of the main queries about the birds was in regards to their eating.  The children always wanted to see the birds eating and what did they eat?  Anytime a birdie was caught eating the kids happily pointed it out.  They also looked at the types of food in the cage, they noticed there was bird seed, a cracker, lettuce, water and a clump of bird seeds on some sort of shape.

I pointed out that this is a kind of bird feeder and asked if they would like to make one as well.  Two days later we made similar bird feeders, however we gave ours to the birds outside.

Here is the recipe we used:

Bird Feeder

4 cups wild birdseed

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup water

3 Tablespoons corn syrup

1 envelop Knox gelatin

We took non-stick cooking spray and sprayed cookie cutters and then placed them on a piece of wax paper laid over a cookie sheet.  We then filled the cookie cutters and smoothed out the top with the spoon.  A little later we used a straw to poke a hole in the feeder for hanging.

Ours came out red because I didn't have the Knox gelatin and had to use the strawberry gelatin we had in the house.

On another day of school the kids pointed out that the birdies did not have a nest so that night I gathered some materials and the next day they made some nest for the birds.  These nests had eggs and of course wormies for the birds to eat.

 

I had these bird shapes from a while back and the kids did water color painting on one side to make birds for their nests.  On the other they layered colored tissue paper and sprayed the paper with water sprayers to make the colors bleed.  We then removed the paper and unveiled the colors.  I love how they came out.

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Bird's Nest Sensory Station

 One morning I put out a bin filled with plastic containers, and recycled straw filing and shredded paper bags.  The invitation was to make birds nest's in the bowls.  They were most excited about the eggs and it became a race to see who would get the most.

One of the completed nests made at the bird nest sensory station with lots of EGGS!

That same day the children took turns in front of the cage observing the birds and drawing their version of the birds.

I am interested to see where this project may continue to take us.  My hope is to stay open to the cues from the children, and continue with studying birds as long as they are interested.