It’s a great time to learn about birds! Are you participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count? This national event is held every February and is a great opportunity to spend time with your young children to learn about birds in your backyard.
My younger children were always interested in learning about birds, so I found bird activities to stretch out the fun throughout the month. First we created a bird friendly environment in our yard. This Heart Shaped Bird Feeder craft from Your Best Homeschool is a fun craft but also a great way to attract birds to your yard! Be sure to watch outside every morning and every afternoon to see “who” stops by.
Homeschool Nature Study Members can download the Bird of the Day Notebooking Page and our Bird Life Cycle worksheet from your dashboard to document and track the birds while learning about the different stages of a bird’s life.
Children will enjoy the Bird Scripture Verses coloring pages at Your Best Homeschool! Be sure to head over and download those for morning bible time.
Learn About Birds With a Bird Nature Walk
A bird nature walk is a wonderful opportunity to observe birds with your younger children. You can see bigger birds that might never come to your backyard bird feeder. Head out around the playground, lake, neighborhood walking trails, etc.
Though my younger children sometimes have difficulty using binoculars, they love having them! So we bring them on our nature walks and find a quiet place to sit (usually near a pond or meadow) and see how many birds we can spot.
Many young children do not know the names of birds so be sure to start with simple identification markings. Color, size, crown, and other markings. This Bird Scavenger Hunt worksheet is a great bring-along sheet to mark off all the birds you see that day.
Nature Study Booklets for Your Nature Walk
You can help your preschooler make his or her own bird paper bag booklet. My children loved it because they felt like a big kid and were proud of their creation. The pages in the book reinforce basic bird facts and allow your child to customize the pages as he’d like.
The inside pages have a place where to draw what you have observed on our nature walk. This is a perfect nature craft for kids!
Paper bag journals are so easy to make and are a great size for little children to handle. Watch the video (linked below) for the simple directions.
Get your FREE paper bag journal pages and watch a video on how to make them: Easy Preschool Science Nature Journals.
Set up a Bird Feeder
My kids love to observe birds from the comfort of our own home! We set up a bird feeder where we could watch the birds from our front room. An easy way to learn about birds!
Learn About Birds with More Bird Resources
Boost your bird study with more resources from Homeschool Nature Study. Click an image below to add more bird learning fun to your fowl studies.
Bird-Themed Nature Writing Center
You can easily set up a bird-themed writing station at home using your printer and supplies you have on hand. A series on writing centers on the WriteShop blog inspired me to create our first-ever writing center.
I tried to provide materials for all age-levels in my home— 1yr to 13yrs. old. I have the station set up by a window so that they will hopefully be inspired by any winged creatures they see outside too.
You might include some of the following in your writing center:
- Bird of the Day printable
- Field guides
- Nature journal
- various bird-theme lined paper for writing (available in Preschool Curriculum)
- bird fact cards from I Spy Nature Printables and Preschool Outdoor Hour Challenge Curriculum
Bird Book Recommendation
Feathers for Lunch is a perfect book to introduce nature to little ones. Lois Ehlert has a wonderful way of crafting the illustrations, and she pairs the real name of 12 birds along with their pictures in this book. After reading it, my girls and I went to our window to see if we could find any of the birds that were listed in the book. Then we made our own feathered-friend craft. This craft is easy and requires just a few items you might already have on hand in your homeschool supplies. What is fun about this craft is that you can make many different feathered friends just by changing colored paper and feathers.
Feathers for Lunch: Bird Craft Supplies
Craft foam or construction paper, glue, feathers, wiggly-eyes, and a pencil.
First: Trace your child’s hand onto craft foam or construction paper and cut out the hand print.
Next: Add glue to the hand print – cover as much space as you can.
Then: Place feathers on top of the glue covering the hand.
Cut a circle out of a coordinating color of fun foam or construction paper. Adhere the circle on top of the feathers.
Lastly: Glue wiggly-eyes and a triangle beak.
Be sure to have your child sign the back and add the date or their age. This is also a nice little gift to send along to grandma, an aunt, or someone special. A child’s hand-print is a special keep-sake. You can create red ones for Valentine’s Day, green feathers for St. Patrick’s, etc. The possibilities are endless!
Homeschool Nature Study Membership
Join us for even more homeschool nature studies for all the seasons! With a nature study each week, you will have joyful learning leading all the way through the homeschool year for all your ages!
Not yet a Homeschool Nature Study Member? We’d love for you to join us and take advantage of the numerous studies – already planned out for you, craft ideas, free worksheets, and #outdoorhourchallenge fun! Become a member and bring the love of learning nature and science easily into your home.
Be inspired. Be encouraged. Get outdoors!
Written by Maureen Spell. Updated and new resources created by Stef Layton.