FEEDING OUR WINTER FRIENDS
Every day the world of nature changes around you and the children in your care. Have you noticed nature when you are outside on a walk? Riding a bicycle? Riding in a car? How many trees can you identify? How many birds and other animals do you know? What is the weather like? How do we feed our winter friends?
For all the food and comfort we’ve provided to the birds and other creatures, it’s clear that we are the ones who reap the greater benefit from the arrangement. For the price of a few sacks of seed, shared table scraps, and the small effort put into these simple craft projects—we gain daily admission to an outdoor spectacle, complete with aerial acrobatics, comic relief, and an original score that only nature could provide. Below are a few ideas to turn your backyard or nearby park into a fun nature spectator sport.
A SPECIAL TREE FOR CREATURES WE LOVE (Baby and Toddler)
This project turns your old holiday tree or a small outdoor shrub into a gift for birds and other small creatures. Set up your tree where babies and toddlers can observe it from a window. Young children will enjoy watching the animals feed daily. To keep it standing upright, use a tree stand or make one by nailing the wooden boards in an X to the bottom of the tree, hammering through the wood and into the trunk. Dress up your “tree feeder” with either of the following edible ornaments below or others you design:
- Cheerio Chains—Wrap tape on one end of a long length of yarn. Tie a knot with a Cheerio on it at the other end. Demonstrate how to string the chain by sliding a Cheerio (or any “O” shaped cereal) over the tape (needle) and dropping it to the bottom. Invite your children to help you until the entire chain is strung. Drape these chains around the tree.
- Orange Slice Ornaments—Poke a hole with a plastic straw at the top of each orange slice. Thread with raffia or ribbon and tie each slice to a branch.
SIMPLE GIFTS YOU CAN GIVE (Preschool +)
Learn which birds and small creatures are likely to be visitors to feeders during the winter months. Invite the children in your care to make simple edibles and discuss what you can do to make the outdoor creatures comfortable.
First take your children on a walk and let them collect items that a bird might use to make a nest, such as twigs, leaves, grass, cotton, and pieces of string. After the walk, let them fold down the sides of a brown bag to make it lower. Place the objects inside and place the bag outside for birds and other small animals to visit and obtain cozy materials for nest building.
Next, help feed our outdoor creatures with fun edibles you make together. Take stale bread and have your children cut shapes with cookie cutters. Invite them to spread peanut butter on the bread with a plastic knife and then sprinkle on birdseed. Poke a hole at the top with a plastic straw. Thread with raffia or yarn. Together decorate the outdoor bushes and low trees branches with these “yummy” decorations.
CREATE A BIRDSEED SNOW ANGEL (School Age)
Your children can delight their winter animal friends by decorating a snow angel with a mosaic made of birdseed. In regions without snow, your children can still make a snow angel in the sand. This angel is easiest made together. One partner lies down to make a snow angel while the other partner stands by to help the maker get up without messing up the imprint. After the imprint is formed, pour cups of birdseed into the angel, filling the head and body with bands of variously colored seed. For a finishing touch, add pine boughs for the angel’s spreading wings.
Watch this spot daily and record your observations in a journal. The journal can be made with paper and a construction paper cover. At the same time every day, write down what the weather is like, including temperature, how the sky looks, if it is snowy or sunny and what animals you see, and how they look to you. Are they feeding? This is such a fun spectator sport; it’s fairly inexpensive and endlessly intriguing!
