Six fun bird activities for your family

Fun ways to play with your child at home while Lend and Learn is closed

Many of you have noticed our changing themes at Lend & Learn throughout this year, from camping adventures to cardboard trains and now to backyard birds. While we can’t be together in person to extent the fun, I would love to share several activities with you that go along with our bird theme to do at home with your child!

  1. Build a nest! 
    • You & your child can easily build a nest in the living room or in your backyard!
    • Indoor – At L&L, I used a small kiddie pool and filled it with strips of paper and felt. At home, you can pile pillows, blankets, and stuff toys into the shape of a bird’s nest. Then, snuggle in with your little one and read a book together!
    • Outdoor – I recently pulled last year’s dried brown vines off the trellis to get ready for spring planting. My kiddos shaped the vines into a nest in the backyard and pretended to be birds. They even put out some bird seed to attract real birds! You can also use dried leaves or sticks. If you don’t have enough material for a human-sized nest, you can build a smaller version for a stuffed animal or doll. 
  2. Make a bird feeder!
    • Simply string cheerios onto pipe cleaners or yarn, loop or tie the ends, and hang it up in the backyard for the birds to snack on. This is a fantastic fine motor activity! 
  3. Dance like a bird!
    • How do birds move? Put on your favorite music and explore different types of movement and dancing inspired by birds — flap, soar, hop, waddle, jiggle side to side! Add a tweet, chirp, and squawk to the rhythm for extra fun!
  4.  Bird watching!
    • Take a walk around the neighborhood or sit out in the backyard watching for birds. Ask your child to point out when they see birds or nests. Notice their colors, movements, sounds, and parts of their bodies like wings and beaks. Count the number or different types of birds together and imitate their sounds.
  5. Bird art!
    • I could list a seemingly endless number of bird-themed art projects. You can draw or print out bird coloring pages. Try sculpting birds nests and eggs from play doh or modeling clay. Cut and paste pictures of birds from magazines. Get creative and paint with feathers. One of my favorite ideas is to shape bird feet using pipe cleaners and stamp bird footprints across paper.with paint or ink!
  6. Bird snacks!
    • Don’t forget the snacks! Chat with your child about what birds eat and fix a special birdie snack together. You can try sunflower or pumpkin seeds, or perhaps a more familiar food like goldfish. Try mimicking how birds eat with tongs or chopsticks like a heron beak, or a measuring cup to scoop like a pelican. One last fun bird-themed snack idea is to build a nest out of pretzel sticks and peanut butter, maybe even pop a couple chocolate eggs in the center as a special treat!

We’ve had a ton of fun with bird-themed play at L&L this month. Bring the bird-themed fun home by trying any one or all of these ideas with your littles!