Spring Focus: Birds
Hello, Spring!
We are just getting the warmer weather headed this way so I have been planning out our upcoming Spring season with some fun things to focus on! My plan for this year is to move intentionally slow, enjoy what we want to learn, what the kids are interested in, enjoy being able to get outside, get dirty, explore and focus on some of the key things that make each season what it is while incorporating some crafts and projects along the way.
Welcome to our unit on B I R D S.
It was such a fun time collecting books from our home and at the library, doing a family project together, filling our bird feeders, learning the anatomy of a bird and watching our birdhouses fill with love again. The kids enjoyed watching the birds come to the window feeder every day and they have been able to see a bird mama start to build her own nest in it! I added a fun little snack in here as well and our daughter’s name is Wren, so it was also fun to chat about the wren bird this season too!
Read ahead to see all of our photo memories + supplies we used for different things. I’ll link everything that I can below this post for you for reference.
The book list we focused on for our bird unit this time:
Birds, Nests and Eggs by Mel Boring
About Birds by Cathryn Sill
Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
The Nest That Wren Built by Randi Sonenshine
Baby Wren and the Great Gift by Sally Llyod-Jones
Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert
We had a few on hand and the others we picked up at the library. A helpful tip is to always get what you need at the library first for short term reads to save money!
Learning about the anatomy of a bird + sharing some fun facts!
The first thing on my list to do to get things going was to fill our feeders. We have one attached to the window and one outside by all of our bird houses. We are so excited to see all of the new bird families come around us this Spring.
The two smaller items I purchased were some beautiful bird stickers to incorporate in our nature journals + bird feathers for sensory play. These are something that aren’t necessary if you’re planning a bird unit but I knew we could + definitely would use both of these things in the future. I’ll link these below for you as well as the journals we love and use.
During one of our outdoor exploration moments, we drew a couple things that related to birds. ‘Building their nest in a tree’ is what we were talking about and Jude asked to draw a tree with me. I used this opportunity to allow him to copy my movements and make his own tree and…
my mama heart melted onto the ground.
Being a part of our children’s learning and watching them learn daily and grow is absolutely priceless.
Reading aloud is so incredibly important and a huge part of our days. We had fun here on this day just reading a book before lunch time, playing with our new feathers for a little sensory time and looking at the pretty bird stickers again! We talked about their different colors + sizes.
As a mama in this moment, I just want to remember the warmth of the sun that landed on my skin through the window view here and how my children just enjoyed being together in this moment, laughed at certain things and the way they just seemed really invested in knowing what we were learning about!
The snack recipe I chose for this unit during our project day was absolutely simple and fun! I didn’t have time to make any fancy granola on this day that I had originally planned to do with the kids so I looked in my pantry and grabbed granola bars! I broke them into pieces and threw them into a bowl and surprised the kids with some ‘birdseed’ to nibble on! They thought this was so silly!
Our family project that we worked on together was making our own bird nests! I have a 2 year old, 3 year old and a special needs child (another 3 year old) so my plan always is to keep it simple but still meaningful and fun! I knew this project wasn’t something that was going to be useless just throw away after we were done and we could leave out all season, or even to keep for as long as we want! The boys went out and collected some twigs, we enjoyed sitting around the table for this project, ate a snack and a read aloud together as a family.
This project was good for sensory, helping each other, fine motor skills, allowing them to be messy, relating how nests look and are made in nature (of course without the clay, ha) and honestly just being together as a family and doing something together!
clay nests
This was something I came up based on supplies I already had at home and something that was also aesthetically pleasing that would go with the vibe of our home and could leave out to enjoy for as long as we want.
The supplies we used:
air dry clay
twigs
The view out our window has become quite sweet as one mama decided to make our feeder her nest! It’s been so cool to watch her form this over the last 24 hours and they aren’t done yet!
Some of the twigs have little buds on them and it just makes these beautiful nests more precious.
My overall observation for this family unit focus was a beautiful one.
We took about 2 weeks to complete everything because we made it intentionally that way. We wanted to enjoy every single thing we were doing and be able to step back and observe nature and enjoy the true gift of birds. I would say if you incorporated everything we did you can make it a 1-2 week unit based on your children’s ages, needs and how they learn best!
Here are all of the links for you if you’d like to do a bird unit with us!
If you decide to do something through our unit choice, please tag us so we can see what your home looks like learning about birds! We’d love to see!
@lifeinthelyonsden
@ourhopefulhomeschool
xx
Books
Birds, Nests and Eggs
About Birds
Are You My Mother? (hardcover)
Are You My Mother? (cloth book)
The Nest That Wren Built
Baby Wren and the Great Gift
Feathers For Lunch
little extras
Bird Feathers
Bird Stickers
Window Bird Feeder