Building a Bird Nest

Sparrow Nest on Our House

Ever have a bunch of ideas in your head, but not enough time to get everything done. That is how I have been feeling. So today I will post about one of my ideas. With the start of spring we have been noticing birds and nests around, so I wanted to focus a bit on birds and nests.I have been pinning many bird nest and bird ideas.  Awhile ago, I posted this picture of a quick bird nest that I got the idea from Kara at Pam's Party Planning and Practical Tips (shared at a Sharing Saturday).

Hazel loved making it and asked to make another, so we bought some supplies. While at Michaels and looking at birds we found this little pre-made nest. We bought the birds in it at The Dollar Tree and put in some faux eggs to make it realistic.

Then we bought a bigger grapevine wreath and a basket at the Dollar Tree to make another one to go with our bigger birds. I used the wool felted eggs I won around Easter. I figured Hazel could play with this one a bit more.

Oh and we changed the birds to the original to a cardinal and other bird Hazel picked out.

The mixture

Next we made some bird nest cookies. I googled for a recipe and found an easy one on Six Sisters' Stuff. It is very easy. You melt a bag of chocolate chips and a bag of some other flavor of chips (I used mixed chocolate and peanut butter) in the microwave by setting it for a minute at 50% power level then stir and repeat until melted. Then stir in a bag chow mein noodles. Drop by the tablespoon on to pieces of waxed paper and shape how you want (we didn't really worry about shaping) and add three or so jelly beans or candy eggs of some sort (we used M&M's). The best part of making them now is all the Easter candy is on sale.

Then you let the cookies harden.

Hazel has already asked to make more of them though I don't think she tasted any of them. I have a different type of recipe to try so we might try them next week.

We also looked at some books on birds and nests. Here are a few of our favorites.

In the Nest by Anna Milbourne is a great book that simplifies the making of the nest and the life cycle of the eggs to baby birds to their first flight and leaving the nest.

Baby Bird's First Nest by Frank Asch is one of Hazel's favorites. It is a story about a baby bird who rolls over and tumbles out of his nest. His sleeping mother does not wake up to his cry for help, but a little frog who lives in the pond next to the tree comes to his rescue. Together they build their first nest and then a raccoon comes so they hide and then the frog helps the baby bird get back to its nest by hopping from branch to branch. It is a great story about helping another and making friends.




Bird Nests by Theresa Hopkins has pictures instead of some words so it is fun for the kids to read. It explains the use of the nest, etc.




Then we started some starched yarn nests. You will have to wait for the glue to dry to see the final product, but I also added raffia. I got the idea from La-La's Home Daycare. She has been doing a lot with birds and bird nests as well.

I also cut the supplies for Hazel to do two paper plate crafts mostly on her own. I painted one of the plates brown for her (more because she was doing something else). Then cut the strips of paper and the beak and wings and gave them to her with a plastic egg (well two tops of blue plastic eggs) and explained it to her. This idea came from Busy Bee Kids Crafts. Hers came out a lot messier,but isn't that how the art of a 3-year-old should be?

The even easier paper plate craft idea came from Arts and Crafts for Tots. I changed it a bit and started with a blue plate and cut the bird, beak and tree for her as well as gave her the yarn and raffia cut up. She did all the gluing herself though. We are happy with it.

So today, I had a bit of an epiphany. Hazel brought her brown paper plate craft to show me and the beaks and wings were glued to the plate and not the eggs. I went to fix them and Hazel apologized to me for doing it wrong. I tried to explain that she didn't do it wrong and realized that I really need to watch what I change and what my expectations are. I know I try not to change much on her things and do not look for perfection in either of our crafts, but I need to remember just how sensitive she is and that she is still trying to figure things out. Anyway, just thought I would share it with you.

The other bird nest in our tree--this one looks huge!

Keep an eye out for more bird crafts as well as gardening, senses, zoos, and multicultural/diversity. Those are all in my head. Now to get them done to share with you.

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