Invitation to Build a Bird Nest

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Our preschool co-cop had a playdate themed around birds today, so I came up with an activity to do with my boys beforehand to spark their interest in the topic. At the recommendation of this Teach Preschool post, I went ahead and purchased the book More by I.C. Springman.The book was sparse on words, but big on concepts (as well as beautiful illustrations!). In the book, friendly mice give a bird a small marble, which then sends the bird on a quest for collecting a few more things until he finally acquires too much! Eventually, the bird is able to pare down to make a more basic and comfortable home. We love the lesson this book teaches about necessities and extras! We used the book as a jumping off point to talk about the materials necessary to make a bird nest. We had a variety of little things that we were going to use to make these birds a nice little home, with the addition of toys for birds to give them something to play with. It also led to a discussion about trash and how it can harm birds and their nests when not picked up and disposed of properly. SO much to learn and discuss from a book with few words!
Supplies:

• More by I.C. Springman
• Small wreath
• Raffia (or shredded paper product)
• Moss
• Items which might belong in a nest (egg, bird figurines, insects)
•  Items which don’t belong in a nest (coins, trash, other small toys)

I placed all the items in a tray along with a small galvanized bucket to act as a trashcan for things that didn’t belong. I also like to keep the book available for reference (we set it on our tabletop Lakeshore Learning easel).

Sorting the materials was a challenge for my 3 year old. He really hadn’t been exposed to birds nests in nature and this was the first time we talked (or read) about them at all. It was nice to introduce him to something completely new. Now we’re going to be more alert in trying to observe nests as we are on nature walks and outside playing so we can properly appreciate them (hands-off appreciation, though!)

One of the things he thought the nest absolutely needed was this screw. It was non-negotiable to him. He said the bird nest had to be “fixed” 😉

A fun extension to this activity would have been to give him some small tweezers to simulate bird beaks (like these Learning Resource ones) and see which items a bird would actually be able to pick up and carry to a nest! I think that may have convinced him that the screw was not the right place for a bird’s home 🙂

In the end, we made a pretty comfy home for our little Safari Limited bird figurine. I think it looked pretty sufficient for his needs 🙂 We then had some Bugles (or “bird beaks”) for snack, but this would have also been a great time to talk about necessities and extras in our own home. Where do we have too much stuff? Can getting rid of things make us more comfortable? While these discussions may be better for older preschoolers, it’s nice that we now have this book that we can go back to whenever things seem to get a little too crowded in our living space.