Bead to feed the birds

Bead to feed the birds can be a project that will promote five very important things in your child:

Whythis project:

*Cultivate emotional intelligence- the feeling “I can help too” attitude among children.

In the winter birds go hungry. This project will involve children in helping the birds. It will give children the sense that we human beings are also part of the big picture and do have the responsibility to help other creatures in nature.

Talk to them to find out how much they know about what birds eat. Involve them to be observant.Do they see lots of leaves, buds, flowers and fruits during this winter time of the year?

As there are less leaves on the trees, less buds,fruits and much less worms, we can provide food for hungry birds. We can hang them on the bare branches.

*Cultivate eye-hand co-ordination and small muscle exercises

*Involve counting and practice early math in a fun way.

*Increase concentration skill

*Increase vocabulary and languageskill

Who will you do this project with

3 to 7 years old children

How will you do this project:

Materials you need are:

*A bowl of cheerios without artificial color and flavors

*Art pipe cleaner wires cut into 6” (15 cm approx), or any wire that is safe for children.

*Small folded cards with numerals written on them

* A tray to hold them all.

Procedure:

Involve the children to understand why we, human beings need to help other creatures in nature. With this back ground, show them how we are going to make cheerio circles or cheerio wreaths.

Pick up a folded card . Show them the numeral. Say out loud. “Seven” (For example you got 7). Count seven cheerios.

String them into one 6” pipe cleaner wire.

Bring the two ends together. Twist to close and shape like a closed circle.

Hang it on a bare branch outside ready for the birds.

Variation:

If you do not have access to an outdoor class area or patio where you have bare branches and trees, you may arrange to take a walk with the kids to check out nature near by and do a field trip.

You may recycle your old Christmas tree and keep it outside for this project

You may hang them from a clothes- line or drying rod

You may use yarns instead of pipe cleaner wires and involve older kids who can make bows or tie shoe laces. They may enjoy this project as a big helper.

You may omit the counting part with folded cards if your children are too young. Then, just focus on the stringing part.

Again, make it more complex with older kids.

Why only circles? Children may make shapes like triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon or heart shapes with the flexible pipe cleaner wire.

Therefore, depending on the ages and skill levels of your children in care, do change the Bead to feed the birds project as you wish!.

A Great Story or Project You Did With Your Child

Do you have a great story or project to share? Share it!

Make sure to give a link to your web site or on- line store if you like. You'll have lots of free traffic.