Feathered Friends - Birds (Bouquet Event)

For our second Funday Monday ( a group of 3-7 year olds come over to my house for a morning of funtivities) our theme was Feathered Friends (Birds)!
Here are the ideas for a Feathered Friends ~ Bird Event for
Sprouts and Seedlings (toddler/preschool and elementary age)...

Three Hens and a Peacock BOOK

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Lester L. Laminack’s book Three Hens and a Peacock Meet the Peacock by Suzanne Buckingham Animals, Animals by Eric Carle Other bird books (see below under “More Ideas”)	Check out the books from the library, buy it from your local book store or www.half.com (my favorite online book store)	1.Discuss birds (sounds, colors, shapes, what they do) 2. Read the book Three Hens and a Peacock! 3. Look through the Meet the Peacock book and discuss the pretty colors and shapes! We also looked through the bird pages of Animals, Animals.

Coffee Filter
Peacock CRAFT
(adapted from
DLKT’s Peacock Plate)

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Coffee filter Washable markers Spray bottle Blue paper for body (*I had the bodies precut for the younger kids and the older kids were given paper and a cardboard body to trace) Yellow triangles Googly eyes Frilled Toothpicks Gold paint (any color will do) Sequins Glue	Cut blue bodies or cut thin cardboard (I used a cereal box) for a tracer. Write names on coffee filters Put gold paint on small lid or plate Set out sequins, googly eyes and yellow triangles on a plate	1.Use markers to draw lines across the coffee filters crossing in the middle. 2. Spray coffee filter lightly (this is done best with plate or paper towel under). Let dry. 3. Cut blue body. 4. Glue eyes, nose and toothpicks to body. 5. Glue body to coffee filter. 6. Dip finger in gold paint and make dots on the coffee filter. While the paint is still wet put a sequin in the middle of each paint dot. Let dry. 7. These look great hanging in the window!

  

“I Love You” 

Handprint Bird CRAFT
(from The Craft Nest –
she has a cute idea for what to write on the inside!)

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
White Cardstock with I Love You pre-printed White envelope Brown lunch bag Scissors Paint (bird color, beak color) Glue Googly eyes Paper plate	Print I Love You a little below the middle of white cardstock and fold in half Put paint on paper plates for handprints	1.Kids cut brown lunch bags into small pieces and glue down for a nest. 2. Put hand in paint and make handprint above the nest. 3. Put finger (on clean hand) in yellow paint and make a fingerprint beak. 4. Wash hands and put a dot of glue and googly eye on and viola an adorable card! We used ours for Father’s Day!

“Bird Seed on a Stick” SNACK
(Becky’s Idea!)

 

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Pretzel rods Sunbutter (or peanut) Chocolate sprinkles	Spread Sunbutter on the top of a pretzel rod Lightly sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles	1.Let the kids enjoy their bird seed on a stick! Our zoo has bird food on a stick that the kids feed the birds with so the kids thought it was fun to eat like a bird. :) *We also had watermelon

Bottle Bird Feeders CRAFT
(from Family Fun ~my fav craft mag) This takes a bit of prep but worth it!

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Empty water bottle 2 wooden spoons Bird seed Funnel Exacto knife Adult scissors String or wire to hang *Stickers/paint to decorate	Use an exacto knife to cut a small X (size for spoon hole) on one side of the bottle (an inch from the bottom). Cut a larger X on the other side the same distance up from the bottom. Do the same thing about 3 inches up from the bottom for the next spoon to fit. Use the scissors to cut a circle where the X’s were made. Slide the spoons in with the wide part of the spoon by the larger circle (older kids can do this themselves) Tie a string around the top to hang (or wrap wire)	1.Take off the lid and put a funnel on the top. 2. Use hands/measuring cups/small cups to scoop bird seed into the funnel. 3. Put the lid on and decorate if you so choose. *We did enough painting for the day so the kids decorated theirs with stickers. Hang up for the birds to eat from.

Bird Nest
CRAFT/
SNACK
(adapted from many places :))

 

The Stuff	The Prep	The FUN!
Pretzel sticks (chow mein noodles work well also) Chocolate chips Whopper robin eggs (can also use jelly beans, peanut M&M’s – anything eggish) Birds (we have used peeps before but I did not save some from easter so we used fuzzy birds from Michaels)	Melt the chocolate chips	1.Kids break the pretzel rods in half and pile up for a nest. 2. Drizzle melted chocolate over the nests. 3. Add the robin eggs and birds and let dry. *These may disappear before they dry.

More ideas…

 

  

 Bird Walk (each of the kids had binoculars - not necessary, just fun). We spotted 2 nests!

Feather Painting (we are saving these for an Eric Carle style collage)
We read Feathers For Lunch by Lois Ehlert before doing our feather painting.

Feather Hunt ~ the older kids hid the feathers and the younger ones went on a feather hunt!

 

Bird Nests using the Peeps

 Bag 'o Supplies for Birdies Nests
use mesh produce bag and fill with yarn, sticks, batting, fabric, feathers, etc.

Please BRAINSTORM your ideas/suggestions in the COMMENTS below for the Feathered Friends ~ Bird Event!
Happy Crafting
~Sara and Becky