9:20 AM
Terri Thompson
This past fall, we discovered a bird had built a nest in our garage on top of the garage door opener. It had been abandoned at some point (probably when the poor birds realized just how loud a garage door can be). We pulled it down, showed the girls, then it was placed in a plastic bin and forgotten about. When Lizzie requested that we spend this week learning about birds, I happened to spot the nest again. Perfect! I got out the nest, took it outside, and we started exploring.
We found the perfect book at the library to help us learn about this nest of ours, A Nest Full of Eggs by Priscilla Belz Jenkins. The book was written for young children and my preschool-aged child easily understood and enjoyed this book. We learned about how birds make nests, lay their eggs, how birds grow from egg to adult, and the different kinds of nests birds build.
While we were reading, we examined the nest. We looked closely to see what materials the bird used to build this nest and came to the conclusion that the bird must have gathered a lot of materials for a nearby farm. We each held on to a side and tried tugging. We learned how strong a bird's nest is since it didn't come apart at all.
We felt inside and discovered how soft it is. We decided it would be a very comfortable spot for an egg to rest. I know that my girls learned a lot through our bird's nest exploration. We had fun, asked questions, drew our own conclusions, and now how more knowledge of the natural world we live in.
Linking up to Tuesday Tots, Read.Explore.Learn, Show & Share Saturday, and It's Playtime
Posted in: nature fun,Science
16 comments:
This was always one of my Kindergarten classes favorite science stations. I just linked your post to our Staying Home is for the Birds post with ideas for sharing Birds with your babies and toddlers. http://www.creativefamilyfun.net/2012/03/exploring-nature-birds-nest.html We'd love for you to share this on our LOVE BOOKS page too!
This is so cool!
I'd love for you to link up this and any other outside play ideas on my ongoing link party! http://tutusandteaparties.blogspot.com/p/come-play-outside.html
Aw, how fun! I hope we find an abandoned birds nest some day. I love how you tied a book so perfectly to this nature exploration.
What a wonderful way to share nature. You are showing your children careful nature observation, and sharing a wonderful book about birds—we have this one and love it so much. Wonderful post.
Love, love, love this exploration!
What a wonderful nature study! We found a couple of abandoned bird nests last fall, and the materials in it fascinated my son (they weren't natural). We decided to leave the nests since some birds will reuse other nests, but it was fun.
http://moms-heart.blogspot.com/2011/09/impromptu-nature-study.html
Stopping by from Read.Explore.Learn!
What a wonderful nest! I love the book you read and the project.
Thank you for linking to Read.Explore.Learn.
We did a similar project this week, and it was a lot of fun! What a great book to go along with the exploration.
What a great idea and I can remember doing something similar with my parents - another great one is to find some owl pellets and work out what they have eatten. I must have been around 5 or 6 the first time that we did that at home was fascinating.
Thank you for linking to Tuesday Tots
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so wonderful and nice idea. Actually its very good for us. Thank sharing with us.
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I think children NEED to be exposed to nature like this, so many don't get the opportunities to see things like this close up-and the way these children were able to explore the texture and ask questions was fantastic. Thanks for the great post!
I would just caution your readers that in most states bird nests are protected even if abandoned, and you need a permit to keep one. (The rules are a bit different when the birds build a nest on a structure you own-you are definitely allowed to move an abandoned nest from inside your garage!). In my state it is really easy to get a permit though, especially if you teach children or home-school. Check with your local wildlife agency before collecting the nest-they are usually delighted to help further education-and may even have some that you can take and use.
that is good and you are deserve for it. i really like bird nest and looks like awesome. Jack Skellington
nice
The same thing happened to our garage door Perth. I guess they're cozy spots for nests! I'll have to try this with the kids, too. Thanks for the inspiration.
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