For the Birds: Nest Making

Today we decided to explore nests. We studied a real birds nest. This one came with our Christmas tree and we kept it. We tried to figure out what birds used to build their nests and were surprised at how many different things we saw: grass, leaves, twigs, wool, yarn and feathers.

So we went outside to gather materials for our nests and to do some more investigating with our magnifying glasses.
 
Back inside we gathered up all of our materials plus some leftover raffia and some wool roving. We used some old playdough for our mud and built our nests.
 
 The finished product with feathers and roving to make them very cozy inside.
 
 We take a snack break and make some peanut butter nests.

Then we gather up all of our leftover nest-building materials and make a nesting bag to hang outside. I found the idea on Family Fun. We hung the bag of nesting goodies from an old bird house in the yard in hope that the birds might find our yard even more enticing. We also threw some brightly colored wool roving to make it easier to see if they grabbed any.
 
 And the rest of the day was spent dressed as ballerinas, making nests out of blankets and hatching eggs.