Lesson Plans

Ideas and resources

First Day of Spring – Bird Nest Feeder

by 5 Comments

First Day of Spring
If you are going to be cleaning out your craft room or cupboard as a part of your spring cleaning routine, you can donate any unwanted yarn to the birds. Fill an empty suet feeder full of small pieces of yarn, hang it up outside, and watch what happens!

It won’t take long for you to start seeing bright colored pieces of yarn woven into bird nests around your yard and even your neighborhood. Once the birds have used up every last piece of yarn, you can make your own suet to fill the feeder with.

Learn more about Susan’s yarn sharing and whether it is safe for the birds.

 

Next Plan Idea:

Comments

  2. NOT a good idea. Birds use natural’s in there nests for a reason “camouflage”. Other birds and animals might be attracted by the colorful threads. Not to mention the hazard of little birdie toes getting caught in the threads.
    Instead, I would suggest using dog fur (cleaning out the brush after grooming) or dryer lint.

  4. please DONT do this.
    not only will bright colours attract predators to the nest but the birds risk either themselves or their young becoming entangled.
    a few handfulls of straw or hay make a much better option

Have you read?

Printable Houses to Use as Christmas Decorations

I guess this isn’t exclusively a kid’s craft or learning activity (though cutting and folding are great for developing fine motor skills!) but I think kids would love having some of these printable holiday houses around the house or classroom to play with in the holiday season. Because they’re made of paper, they’re inexpensive to make, and while there is assembly involved the results are well worth the work.

If you have a cutting machine you can use the cut files from Delia Creates to make making your own paper village that much easier. She actually cut out all her buildings in different colors of card stock and used them to decorate a wreath, but you could also put them on the mantle or on a low table for kids to play with. Make a whole small world scene complete with fake snow, little characters and other elements, and kids are sure to start making their own stories to go with the setup.

This set of houses is printed and cut out using a craft knife. It’s meant to be an advent calendar, with each of the buildings numbered and you can stick a treat inside. But you could also just play with the buildings! You can get a free download of four buildings from Little House on the Corner, or head to the post to see where you can buy the whole set.

The Mavelo website isn’t in English, but their printable gingerbread house template is super cute to use as a gift box or to play with. If you need the instructions the website is in Polish but Google Translate seems to do a pretty good job.

Bora Illustrates has an adorable little house to print, cut and assemble featuring a cat, bird and gingerbread person. You could probably print it in black and white and have your kiddo color it, too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *