Here's what we made at the preschool the past two weeks.
Week one: We made bird nests.
It may seem like a bit of a stretch, but the idea for these came after I became fascinated with the beautiful nests of fiber artist Kirsten Chursinoff. I love her idea of recycling odd bits of yarn and scraps of fabric and turning them into something beautiful. I always seem to have too much of that stuff laying around cluttering up my work space, yet can't seem to part with. Around the same time I saw those nests, I read this post (via smoothpebble) about what we can do to help the birds during nest building time.
First, I created a simple crocheted nest out of hemp cord for each child.
I made up the pattern for these as I stitched, so have no idea exactly what I did, but they were pretty basic...I stitched in the round to make a bowl then added a long loop over the top for hanging.
They looked so pretty as they were.
Before the children started building their nests we talked a little about how a bird might make theirs, what materials they would use and why. I put together a batch of pie and cake tins filled with different fibers that the children could select from as they filled their nests.
The children choose the straw, yarn bits, dryer lint, fabric scraps, feathers and twigs and grasses. They decided the pie tins with rocks and pine cones would not make a comfortable nest.
They stuffed their nests with all these things, pulling little bits out through the gaps in the nest so the birds could easily pull from them. The idea then was for the children to hang these in their yards at home for the birds to find and use what they needed when building their nests.
The kids loved this activity and I have to say, the nests were pretty cute.
Week two: We made simple bird feeders.
Borrowing (as I often do) another wonderful idea from my friend Sarah, the kids made bird feeders like the one Sarah's daughter, Lou made. As my kids are younger, I took Sarah's advice and pre-drilled holes for the dowels and bird seed.
Each child was given the opportunity to use the saw to cut their own sapling and dowel. They sanded rough edges smooth and most were able to screw the eye screws in by themselves. We filled the holes with a mix of bird seed, suet and peanut butter and finally, added twine for hanging.
All we have to do is wait and see if the birds come.
