Chasing Cheerios

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Winter Birds Science Shelf


A very kind and generous reader sent us the book, Science is Simple, a couple of months ago. One of my favorite things about the book is the idea of having science tables. I set up a science shelf (it replaced our playdough shelf since O prefers to play with playdough at the table rather than the shelf) in our kitchen.

Our first subject was winter birds. We've enjoyed making art using bird rubbing plates. I set up a sensory box using birdseed, and O LOVES it! We watch birds with binoculars and listened to birdsongs on our Backyard Birdsongs book. We made a bird feeder using a pinecone, peanut butter, and birdseed. We put it on the railing of our deck and predicted whether the birds or squirrels would get to it first. Then we sat down to wait. We waited and waited and waited. Evidently our birds and squirrels are well fed because they didn't eat the birdseed for almost a week!

We've enjoyed taking daily nature walks in the woods, and we spotted a woodpecker a few days ago...that was very exciting! We're loving the wonderful weather we've been having lately, and I'm so glad that my girl loves playing in the woods as much as I did as a child :)

4 comments:

  1. My son has that book and we LOVE it! Sounds like you've had fun. Our pinecone/PB feeders got emptied in an eyeblink. We didn't do a good job of watching who ate though.

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  2. i was looking up how to make bird feeders with kids. and they said it takes about a week for the birds and critters to make sure that the feeder is safe (no humans around). so i am prepared for ours to be left alone for awhile like yours was...once we get it made. guess they were right.

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  3. You should study the woodpecker. They are fascinating. There is a video on You tube that talks about how they are made. I found it neat that they have shock absorbers.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKR9vS4df-I&feature=related

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  4. What a lovely shelf and I especially like your bird puppet.

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