Birds of a Feather - Day Five
Nests
Have the children bring their blankets to the circle and pile them all in the middle of the circle to form one, big nest. Most birds build nests. In most instances, the females do most, if not all of the work. There are so many different kinds of nests. Find a good book that has pictures of different nests and let the children get up close and examine the different nests. Let them sit in the blanket nest as they listen to the following stories.


Good Book
The Best Nest
by P.D. Eastman


Another Good Book
A Mother For Choco
by Keiko Kasza 


One More Good Book
Tanglebird
by Bernard Lodge 

Movement
Musical Nests
Let each child pick up his blanket and put it on the ground to form a big circle of small nests. Then, remove one blanket so there are only enough nests for all but one child. Play this game just like musical chairs except instead of walking around the circle, the children should fly. When a child gets out, he should sit in the new nest that is formed with the blankets that are removed when each person gets out.

Messy Table
Mud Nest
Blue Jays and Swallows build their nests out of mud on the walls of cliffs, barns and caves. Provide the children with small, paper bowls and squirt bottles filled with mud. They can squirt the mud from the bottles and onto the bowls to form a mud nest. Try making thin mud by mixing fine dirt with water until it is creamy. Then, it will easily squirt from a pancake syrup bottle. The end products may not resemble nests, but the children will have a new appreciation for the work that goes into making one.Cut & Color Table

Bird Beaks
Some birds use their pointy beaks as needles to sew leaves together to make nests. Others use their beaks to weave twigs and hairs together to form nests. Beaks come in handy during nest building season. Give each child a snow cone cup and let them use colorful markers to decorate their beaks. Use a hole puncher to make a hole on each side of the beaks. Tie a string to each hole and let the children wear the beaks while they pretend to be birds in the home center.

Creative Art
Nest Collage
Things you will need:
  • Glue
  • Twigs
  • String
  • Cotton
  • Hair
  • Thread
  • Grass
  • Poster board
Some birds make their nests from anything they can find and they weave the materials together. They use all kinds of different materials both from nature and man made. Put materials on the table and provide them with plenty of glue. Let them glue the materials onto poster board in the shape of a nest.


Outside
Naughty Little Birdies
Put a large blanket in the middle of the grass. This is the nest. Have all of the baby birdies sit in the nest. Mama tells the babies, “Do not leave the nest while I am gone.” When mama flies away, the babies all fly out of the nest and around the play yard. When they see mama fly back into sight, they must fly back to the nest before mama can touch them. If a baby is touched before he makes it back to the nest, he is out. As children get “out’ give them a gummy worm to eat as they fly from the nest. Then, mama leaves the nest and tries to catch her naughty little birdies again. Play until a pre-decided number of birdies are left in the nest.