Home » Activities » Animals » Page 22

Mini beast hunt

by 2 Comments

Growing sunflowers with children? Download our free sunflower activities ebook.

Our sunflowers have now moved outside to our little greenhouse to enjoy the Spring sunshine and get them used to being outside. We’ve been out enjoying the garden too. Little has been especially interested to see creatures out there. She will stop in her tracks and peer at her feet, watching an ant running around. Big is interested to know which animals are goodies (that would include worms and ladybirds) or badies (which definitely includes slugs and snails). So we have decided so survey what animals we have sharing our garden with us by playing… Garden Bingo!

First we talked about what animals we might expect to see. (Sorry Little, but no elephants are likely to be found.) Then we drew pictures of them. Everyone can join in with this, no matter how young or artisically challenged they might be. Little did a great worm, ladybird and spider – with carefully counted legs. Big’s cat is very characterful and her butterfly is perfectly symmetrical. I was able to muster some greenfly and wowed everyone with my woodpigeon.

Then we stuck our animal pictures on to our bingo card and wrote their names underneath, along with a tick box for each one. Each time we spot an animal in the garden we’re going to tick them off our card. Take time to have a good look at each animal as you see them. Look at their shape, colour and patterns and count their legs (or note their lack off). Talk about their role in the garden ecosystem and decide if they are goodies or badies.

If you like a competition you could make each person a slightly different bingo card to see who can spot all their creatures first to get a ‘full house’. We like to promote harmony in our garden so we have one big bingo card to complete all together.

If you’re out in the garden and growing things with your children, come and join in with our Sunflower Club to get a Spring and Summer full of activities all linked to growing and gardening.

milk carton bird feeder – a feather cafe

by Leave a Comment

milk carton bird feeder

Today’s advent activity for us has been to make bird feeders for the birds in the garden. This is part of our theme of thinking of others – animals included – over the Christmas period. My 3 year old managed to do all the tasks here herself (except the craft knife cutting of course) and was really pleased with what she’d made. We chatted about why we’re putting extra feed out for the birds in winter, what they like to eat and where the seeds come from.

Here’s how we made our Milk Carton Cafe.

1. You will need: a 1 pint milk carton with a lid, a craft knife, bird seed, lard (at room temperature so it’s squashable), raisins, a twig (about 15cm long), a dessert spoon and a teaspoon

materials for bird feeder

2. Cut two holes for the twig to go through about 2cm up from the base of the milk carton. I used a craft knife to do this and made a triangular shaped hole – it’s clearly not something the children should do by themselves. You want the twig to fit through snuggly so it stays in place so just make a small hole. Make two larger holes above so the birds will be able to sit on the twig and get at the cafe through these larger holes.

cut holes in the feeder

3. Poke the twig through the two smaller holes to make your bird seat.

poke twig through

4. Next mix up your feast. We used lard, a mixed wild bird seed and some raisins. We found using the larger spoon worked best as we could squish and squash the ingredients together.

mix the bird seed and lard together

5. Use the smaller spoon to put the food into the milk carton and squash it down with the back of the spoon as you go.

fill milk carton with seeds

6. Put the lid on the carton to keep any rain out and your cafe is ready to go outside. You can place it on a bird table, wall or window ledge or use the handle (perhaps with some string threaded through) to hang it from a tree, hook or nail. Then keep watch and see if you can name all the birds who come to eat.

Flutter like a butterfly and wiggle like a worm

by Leave a Comment

A quick and simple game to play to boost your child’s language and get them moving.

Ask you child if they can tell you an animal which flutters? And can they move like one too?

What about an animal that wiggles…swims…flies…dives…stomps…jumps…shuffles…bounces…slithers…stalks…pounces…gallops?

After you’ve played the game a few times and your child has been using the new words you can extend the game by getting them to ask you the questions.

NurtureStore