Preschoolers can have fun while learning about birds.
Teaching children about birds from a young age is a great way to encourage them to start noticing the wildlife around them. It can also help them to learn some of the different features of birds and their behavior. Effective activities for teaching preschoolers about birds range from bird arts and crafts to making bird feeders.
Handprint Rooster
Making a rooster craft can be an easy and fun way for children to start learning about birds. Hand each child a standard white paper plate and some pieces of paper. Each child should draw an outline of each of their hands on the pieces of paper and then color them in red with colored pens or pencils. While you and your teaching assistants go around to cut out the children's' hand outlines, tell the children to draw on an eye onto their paper plates. Give them already cut triangles of yellow cardboard and ask them to affix them onto the plates with glue to make beaks. When their hand outlines have been cut out, ask children to stick the hands onto the back of the plate so that the fingers are visible over the top and bottom edges of the plates. This makes up the rooster's crest and wattle to complete the rooster craft.
Bird Feeder
Making a simple bird feeder can be a fantastic way to teach children about what birds eat and can attract birds to feed near your classroom's window, allowing the children to see the birds up close. Hand out stale bread and cookie cutters to the children and ask them to cut circles of stale bread with the cookie cutters. When they have made their circles, ask them to hand the circular pieces of bread to you so that you can spread peanut butter onto one side of the bread. Then ask the children to place the bread with the peanut butter side down into trays of seeds and wheat germ so that the bird feed sticks to the bread. Make a small hole in the top of each piece of bread and thread some yarn through it. Then take the children outside to watch you hang the bread hanging from the yarn onto some trees outside your classroom window. Explain that the birds will be attracted to the food. Back in the classroom, you may be lucky to be able to watch some birds feeding from your feeders the same day. Ask the children to identify the different kinds of birds they see.
Bird Necklaces
Have the outlines of a few different recognizable birds, such as parrots and roosters, ready to cut out from pieces of cardboard or construction paper. Also have the shapes of bird feathers ready to cut out, too. Have the children color the birds and feathers with colored pens or pencils. Then cut out the birds and feathers for them when they have finished. Give them each a piece of string or yarn and ask them to use a hole punch to make a small circular hole into each shape and then to thread it onto the string. Tie the string together so that they can wear their bird necklaces.
Bird Rubbings
Cut out bird shapes into materials of different textures, such as doilies and sandpaper. Tape them onto desks around the classroom and have a pile of paper and selection of crayons on each desk. Each child should sit down at a different bird shape station, place a piece of paper over the shape and gently rub their crayon over the paper so that the bird shape appears on the paper. Encourage the children to rotate to various stations around the classroom so they can sit in front of different bird shapes and use different colored crayons to add new birds onto their pieces of paper.
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