Feathered Friends!

Parent/Child Activity

• Play duck, duck, goose as a parent/child team
• Migration Headache game from Nature Scope. Explain to the group that birds migrate (move) in the fall because they cannot find food in the winter. Have children pretend to be a bird that migrates. Ask them to ‘migrate’ south for the winter by running from one end of a field or room to the other. Have them migrate back north to find a nest. Nests can be trees or paper plates scattered around playing field.
• Feed Baby Birds. Tell the children they are the mommy or daddy bird. The adults becomes the baby birds. Ask the children to make a nest of twigs and grass on the ground, within a designated area. Have “mommy” and “daddy” birds fly to food source (popcorn in large bowls). Pick it up with their beak (2 fingers in a beak shape) and fly back to baby and feed them. Repeat until popcorn is gone.
• Fly with scarves to music. Pretend the scarves are wings and dance to the music.

Craft

Activity #1: Pine Cone Bird Feeders
Tie a string to one end of a pine cone. Spread pine cones with a peanut butter and cornmeal mixture. Place pine cone in a large container with sunflower seeds inside. Replace lid and shake. Take out pine cone and hang in a nearby tree.

Activity #2: Feathered Friends
Have children ‘color’ a line drawing of a bird with glue sticks (not crayons). Have children add craft feathers on their bird to make their own feathered friend.

Fingerplay

Up in the sky, the little birds fly (flutter hands)
Down in their nests the little birds rest (hands in lap)
With a wing on the left and a wing on the right, (flutter left hand then right hand-as leader, do the opposite hand if facing the children)
The little birdies sleep all night (fold hands under cheek)