NurtureStore » Outdoor

Creative Christmas Countdown: Christmas tree bird feeder

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:00:59 +0000

Today it’s NurtureStore’s turn to share an idea in the Creative Christmas Countdown hosted by Creative with Kids. A big festive hello to those of you visiting from the interactive Advent calendar and welcome to NurtureStore. While you’re here you might like to take at look at some of our other creative, crafty Christmas activities or sign up for our weekly Play Planner.

For today’s Creative Chistmas activity I’m sharing an idea to make a Christmas Tree for the feathered friends in your garden. Christmas is a time of year when we can really encourage children to think of others and give gifts to those they love. How about spending some time with your kids, giving thanks for the natural world and helping them put together a Christmas feast for the birds?

Here are four easy ideas you can use to make a bird feeder – and if you make them all, you can hang them together on a tree outside to make an Christmas tree that gives your feathered friends a festive feast.

How to make a bird feeeder: popcorn chain

Stringing up some popcorn chains to wind around your tree will make it look just like you’ve added some bird-friendly tinsel. All you need to do is pop some corn kernels (with no added salt or sugar) and then use a needle to put them on to some thread.

You can make your chain as long as you like to fit your tree. Leave some lengths of thread at either end so you can tie it in place. You’re even allowed to eat a few pieces of popcorn as you work!

How to make a bird feeder: cafe bar

To make a cafe bar bird feeder you need to use a small plastic pot. Use a craft knife to make a small hole in the bottom then find two sticks to make perches – twigs, lollipop sticks or kebab skewers all work well. Cross them over and secure with a little sticky tape. Use some string to thread through the hole in your pot, around the sticks and back through the hole again. This holds the sticks in place and gives you a handle at the top of your feeder to tie to the tree.
Make your bird feed by mixing one part lard with two parts bird seed. You can also add in raisins, peanuts or grated cheese. You can use a spoon or get stuck in and squish it all together with your hands. Do not melt the lard (or it will run out through the hole in your plastic pot) but have it at room temperature so it’s easy to combine with the seeds.

Pack the seed mix into your plastic pot and press it down well. Let it chill and harden in the fridge for an hour or so.
Once the seed mix is solid you can pop off the plastic pot and then use the string handle to hang it up – a seed cafe ready for the birds to visit.

How to make a bird feeder: pine cone

You can use this same bird seed mix to make a fircone feeder too. Just tie some of your string to the top of the fircone and use your fingers to squish the seed mix into all the nooks and crannies.

How to make a bird feeder: raisin kebab

This one was B’s invention: a kebab stick threaded with juicy raisins, with some string tied at the top to hang it from your tree.

Decorate your Christmas tree bird feeder

Once you’ve made a variety of bird feeders you can head out into the garden to deck your outside Christmas tree. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a fir tree that you use – the bird feeders transform bare branches really nicely. If you can, pick a tree that you can see clearly from where your children play, then they can watch the birds come and feed and know they’ve shown their feathered friends some Christmas kindness.

For more Christmas Advent activities

Be sure to visit the Creative Christmas Countdown each day in December as there are lots more ideas to come!

You can also visit our Christmas archive for paper plate angels, model Christmas villages, snow playdough and more. And join NurtureStore on Facebook for lots more ideas throughout the week.

happily shared with the outdoor play party

Get your copy of Play Grow Learn

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:00:31 +0000

Have you got your copy of Play Grow Learn yet? Christie over at Childhood101, who produces this e-magazine, sent me a copy to read and I wanted to let you know the second edition is out now because I think you will love it!

Get your copy of Play Grow Learn

Bringing together lots of fun play ideas, the e-magazine is just $4 USD to buy and has some super fun ideas in it to enjoy with your kids.

There are 50+ ideas for outdoor play, some nice recipes for snack time cooking with your kids and – my favourite article – some play ideas that glow in the dark. How fun will that be now the nights are getting darker sooner.

To get your copy, by instant download, hop on over to Childhood101 and and check out Play Grow Learn.

The best kids ice play ideas

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:25:19 +0000

Ice play provides a rich sensory experience for children to explore. There are so many wonderful creative ways to enjoy ice play, including science, art and maths activities. Here are some of our favourite ice play ideas, from some of our favourite bloggers. Click through on each of the links to discover some fantastic ice play ideas you can enjoy with your children this winter.

Above: sail some ice cube boats :: make colourful ice sculptures :: paint on ice cream :: go excavating for frozen treasure ::

make a frozen rainbow you can eat :: investigate dry ice :: mini ice hockey game :: freeze some bubbles

add ice to your sensory table :: add coloured ice cubes to your bath :: add colour and salt to make ice art

go ice fishing :: create ice decorations :: explore melting :: paint with popsicles

What’s your favourite kind of ice play?

School gardening club: quirky eco planters

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:35:08 +0000

This week’s school gardening club motto was ‘how cool is that!’ When the children arrived for the club I don’t think they really believed us when we said we were going to plant flowers in wellington boots – but that’s just what we did.

The aim of the school garden is to be as eco-friendly as we can while still creating a beautiful space. Inspired by the wellies, teapots and bottles I’d pinned onto our Kids Gardens Pinterest board we set about gathering some quirky eco planters to create our own wall of colour. The plan was to re-use and upcycle what we already had, were about to throw out or could find in charity shops. And it’s amazing just what you can find to transform into a plant pot!

First we made sure every planter we were going to use had drainage holes in the bottom. Scissors or a craft knife did the job well in most of the containers and we used a drill for some of the metal items. And of course some planters, like the steamer and colander, came with drainage holes already in them.

We used cable ties to fasten the planters to our fence, with some ribbon here and there to add some extra colour.

The eco planters were filled peat-free compost and a selection of spring bulbs including snowdrops, daffodils and tulips, with some winter pansies to add colour over the next few months. The children just loved how great the wellies looked.
We also made some planters to group together on the floor, using kitchen items to tie in the idea that we’ll be eating lots of the things we’ll be growing.

The eco planters have already transformed the drab metal fence that makes up one wall of our school gardening club plot. This fence is visible from the main entrance to the school, giving a little glimpse of the secret garden it hides. Imagine how glorious it’ll look when all the bulbs are in flower.

More school gardening club ideas

If you’d like to read more, here are all our school gardening club posts

happily shared with sunday showcase and craft schooling sunday and the outdoor play party and your green resource

Autumn sensory scavenger hunt

Cathy @ NurtureStore — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:00:52 +0000

Remember the easy sewing project from yesterday, showing how to make a bag? It was a fun project for little fingers but we turned it into a springboard for another activity too, by making a scavenger hunt on the reverse side.

First we had a blast of ideas for all the things we might find on our nature walk . The children shouted them out and we put all the ideas down on some stickers. Some wrote them down, some drew pictures and I scribed the others. Here a some of the things they came up with:

leaves, sticks, twigs, branches, trees, feathers, pinecones, grass, acorns, conkers, squirrels, cobwebs, bark

Then I asked them to think what colours, shapes and textures we might find:

hard, cold, smooth, spiky, soft, sticky, floaty, pointy, round, scratchy, tall, long

Once we’d captured all the ideas, we stuck our stickers all over one side of the bag – we put them on the side without the child’s initial on, and added the stickers before we laminated the paper. This became the reverse side to our scavenger hunt bag. Then we set off on our nature walk to see how many things we could find to match the words we’d thought of.

Having a bag for each child encourages everyone to join in and gives everyone a turn to find treasures. It also means I’m not the only one carrying everything – and collects a great variety of items to explore in the other activities we have planned for this week.

The list of ideas on the bag is a prompt to invite the children to explore the shape and feel of everything they find, and to use their eyes and ears to seek out lots of different items. The bag design makes it easy for the children to carry the list with them, and the initials on the flip side lets each child locate their bag of goodies.

Come back tomorrow to see what we did with all the things we found.

And hop back to yesterday’s post if you’d like all the instructions for how to make a bag.

happily shared with nature connections and sunday showcase and friday’s nature table and it’s playtime