Make a Nest for Baby Birds

Materials

• paper sandwich bags
• pieces of shredded green paper or Easter grass
• colored cotton balls (large and small)
• hole punched black circles
• orange paper for beaks
• white glue

Point out that not all birds make a nest like this one. Some, like turkeys, just press down the grass and lay their clutch. The children are probably most familiar with this type as robins, cardinals, and sparrows make bowl nests.

When the nest is being built, the adult bird lines it with soft grasses and feathers.

Baby birds that are being fed by their parents have wide, colorful beaks so that the parent can get the food into the open, begging mouth easily.

It’s great if your site has a nest that is close enough for the children to observe.

Be sure to have the children’s names on the bottom of the bags. Help the children open their bags, roll the sides of the bag inward, and crumple it until it looks like a bird’s nest. (You will need to prepare the bags ahead of time for children under 3 years old.) Here’s the fun part! Let the children squirt glue all around the inside of the bag. Then they can add the grass.

Help the children glue two large cotton balls inside the nest for the birds’ bodies.

Then they glue two small cotton balls on for the heads.
The children add two black circles for the eyes on each head.