One familiar site of spring is seeing birds gathering materials to make their nests. This week we have watched robins and sparrows busily gathering sticks, leaves, moss and mud to begin their construction.
In this resource we head off into the woods to make some birds nests of our own. Using the story The Magpies Nests we use simple natural materials and get into the character of a bird to gather and build.
This is a fun activity and also introduces weaving and bowl forming, both skills that can be built on and used for future projects.
Along with being great fun this activity is also good for you wellbeing because:
1) Get Active - birds live in the great outdoors so to build a nest you'll want to head to a park or a local woodland.
2) Keep Learning - You will interact with many different materials in this activity, experiment and see which work best: dry sticks or bendy sticks, hard mud or squidgy mud?
3) Be Mindful- Before you build take some time to watch the birds in action, try to notice the types of materials they choose.
4) Practice Kindness- remember everyones outcomes will differ greatly - respond with kindness and respect. Responding enthusiastically will always boost your child's confidence and make you feel good too once you see how much confidence they will then have.
5) Think Community - Birds are a part of the community- put up a bird feeder or bird table and give them daily offerings of seeds and nuts.