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birdjournal

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

September 18, 2020 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

How to make an easy jumbo stick bird feeder with kids is a fun project to do with the kids for a bird unit study or just because.

This diy bird feeder covers fine motor skills, problem solving, art, science, following directions, and more.

Making a bird feeder with kids is a great rainy day activity that gets kids asking questions and investigating with little prompting.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Too, creating a craft can just take a few minutes.

Bird Games and Bird Books

Also, look at some of these fun games and books to add to your unit study about birds.

17 Books, Resources, and Activities About Birds

You'll love these fun resources if you're studying about birds. Besides, you can study about birds anytime of the year.

So, add one or two of these to your unit study, nature journaling, or just fun for the day.

1. A Place for Birds

In simple yet compelling language, Melissa Stewart showcases twelve North American birds, from the familiar eastern bluebird to the rare Kirtland's warbler. Her clear narrative shows the threats these birds face, and informative sidebars describe a wide variety of efforts to save them. In addition, remarkable full-color illustrations vividly and accurately depict the birds within the ecosystems that support their survival. Range maps and additional bird facts are also included.

2. Feathers: Not Just for Flying

Young naturalists explore sixteen birds in this elegant introduction to the many, remarkable uses of feathers. A concise main text highlights how feathers are not just for flying. More curious readers are invited to dig deeper with informative sidebars that underscore how feathers of all shapes and sizes help birds with warming or cooling, protect them from the sun, help them swim, glide or even
dig.

3. A Nest Is Noisy (Family Treasure Nature Encylopedias)

This gorgeous and informative look at the fascinating world of nests, from those of tiny bee hummingbirds to those of orangutans high in the rainforest canopy.

4. Big Book of Birds (The Big Book Series)

The book draws in children and parents alike with captivating information about and charming illustrations of hummingbirds, peacocks, flamingos, bald eagles, secretary birds, puffins, red-crowned cranes, and more. The book also invites young bird-watchers to protect birds where they live and make their gardens bird-friendly. The text is chatty, funny, and full of remarkable facts.

5. Peterson Field Guide To Birds

For decades, the Peterson Field Guide to Birdsof Eastern and Central North America has been a popular and trusted guide for birders of all levels, thanks to its famous system of identification and unparalleled illustrations. Following the Spring 2020 update to Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America, this guide will feature updated text and range maps, and art updated to reflect current knowledge in ornithology. 

6. How to Feed Backyard Birds: A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids

How to Feed Backyard Birds: A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids is the perfect resource for beginners who are young (and not so young) to discover the joy of attracting birds to your yard. Bird lover and expert Chris Earley wants to share his passion for our colorful singing and flying neighbors with the whole family.

7. Wingspan Board Game - A Bird-Collection, Engine-Building Game

Competitive, card-driven, engine-building board game.

Challenging strategy game recommended for those ages 14 plus

Game includes 170 unique bird cards, 26 bonus cards and 16 Automa cards, 103 food tokens and 75 egg miniatures, 5 custom wooden dice and 5 player mats, 1 birdfeeder dice tower and 2-piece Game Trayz custom tray, 1 goal mat and 8 goal tiles, 1 first-player token and 40 action cubes, 4 clear plastic resource containers, 1 scorepad, and 3 rulebooks.

8. Beaks!

Young naturalists explore a variety of birds, their habitats, and how their beaks help them build, eat, and survive. From the twisted beak of a crossbill to the color changing bill of a seagull, readers will learn fun facts about how beaks are designed and used as tools by birds of all shapes and sizes.  Bright, bold cut-paper illustrations create amazingly realistic tableaus of birds in their natural
environments with their beaks in action.

9. Bird Figurine Toy Birds for Kids Realistic Bird

Set of bird figurine toys, which contains 7 different small plastic birds. The weight of bird figure toy is 96G / 0.2LB. The set of small plastic bird contains 7 pecies of toy birds,such as robin, bluebird, oriole, woodpecker, etc. Please refer to the picture for the actual size and color.

10. Professor Noggin's Birds of North America Trivia Card Game

PLAY & LEARN: Professor Noggin’s series of educational card games encourages kids to learn interesting facts about their favorite subjects.

FUN FACTS: Everything young birders need to know about the most common and interesting Birds of North America. Learn to identify different species and discover fascinating facts about their habitat and behavior.

CARD GAME: Each of the thirty game cards combines trivia, true or false, and multiple-choice questions. A special three-numbered die is included which adds an element of unpredictability.

11. Audubon's Birds of America Coloring Book

Including the red-winged blackbird, painted bunting, wood duck, great blue heron, ruby-throated hummingbird, purple finch, and blue jay, 46 different species of birds from all parts of the United States are included in this book. The pictures have been faithfully redrawn by Paul E. Kennedy from originals by John James Aububon (1785–1851), the most famous American painter-naturalist.

12. The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon

If there was one thing James loved to do more than anything else, it was to be in the great outdoors watching his beloved feathered friends.In the fall of 1804, he was determined to find out if the birds nesting near his Pennsylvania home would really return the following spring. Through careful observation, James laid the foundation for all that we know about migration patterns today.

13. Attracting Birds to Your Backyard: 536 Ways To Turn Your Yard and Garden Into a Haven For Your Favorite Birds

Enjoy your home and garden as never before when you have a yard that's filled with colorful birds and bird songs as well as flowers. This A-to-Z guide includes:Terrific tips and plans for building bird feeders, birdbaths, and birdhouses.Recipes for making bird food that is sure to be a hit with your feathered friends--including Chickadee Doughnut Delights and Easy Bird Treat Mini-Muffins.The 25 best plants to grow to attract birds to your yard--including columbine and honeysuckle, hummingbird favorites.How to identify and attract goldfinches, chickadees, cardinals, and more than 50 other favorite birds to your yard. Plus, you'll learn what their songs and antics really mean.

14. Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds

Describes all species found in the North American region and offers information on breeding cycles, nesting habits, and provides pictures of nestlings and eggs

15. What's That Bird? Teacher Guide

This study guide accompanies What's That Bird? published by Storey Publishing in 2005, incorporating facts to know, comprehension questions, and characteristics of specific birds. Sections include: 'Meet the Bird', 'How Birds Live', and 'The Wider World of Birds'. Student Book and What's That Bird? sold separately.

16. Paint by Sticker: Birds: Create 12 Stunning Images One Sticker at a Time!

Nature's Masterpieces—ready for paintingPeel the sticker,Paint the sticker, And watch your painting come to life.Paint by Sticker: Birds celebrates the rainbow of colors and shapes of the avian world: a red-headed woodpecker, a blue jay, an orange and black Baltimore oriole, an electric bright hummingbird.

17. Sibley Backyard Birding Flashcards

The Sibley Field Guide to Birds is now transformed into 100 easy-to-reference cards housed in one handsome pull-drawer gift box. Divided into one stack of 50 common Western and Eastern North American birds, and one stack of 50 common birds found across North America, each card features precise illustrations and text concerning habitat, behavior, and voice description necessary for easy identification. Edited with the backyard birder in mind, each bird card is accompanied with a regional map as an additional guide to migratory patterns.

Bird Feeder With Kids Activity

Craft sticks are a homeschool staple for a reason!

They can be used in so many ways and in this case they are the perfect material for a simple bird feeder that your kids can create with a little help from you. 

Here is the quick and simple list for this easy bird feeder:

  • Jumbo Craft Sticks 
  • Wood Glue/Craft Glue
  • Strong Twine
  • Bird Seed

Easy directions for making a fun nature craft bird feeder:

We used wide craft sticks as a base and the sides of our simple bird feeder but you can use standard sized if you like.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

First, create a base platform by lining your sticks up, 7 jumbo craft sticks is the perfect width for laying the sticks lengthwise.

Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Our Journey Westward

Next, glue a stick across each end of your base.

Avoid using hot glue as the heat outside tends to soften the glue and your birdhouse will fall apart. Instead use a wood glue or tacky craft glue like E6000.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Use colored sticks or outdoor stain if you wish first on your craft sticks if you like.

Then, alternate two sticks in one direction and then two in the other until you have built it up as high as you like.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Allow glue to dry overnight to be sure its secure.

Then, slide 4 long pieces of twine between the top most sticks on each of the 4 sides, tie it off.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Finally, pull the 4 string straight up and tie the end into a knot about 12”-15” up, trim off excess.

Our Journey Westward
How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Fill with seed and place in a shady tree.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Also, to make your bird feeder last longer than just one season give it two coats of spray sealer before filling and allow it to dry thoroughly to make it water safe.

How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

Bird Vocabulary for Nature Unit Study

Additionally, I’ve added some words for vocabulary, spelling, placing in alphabetical order, and handwriting practice.

  • Extinct
  • Endangered
  • Aviary
  • Talon
  • Beak
  • Flock
  • Flight
  • Wingspan
  • Migrate
  • Flitter
  • Raptor
  • Ornithology
How to Make an Easy Jumbo Stick Bird Feeder with Kids

More Bird Activities For Unit Studies

Keep on expanding upon this activity by turning it into a full study with books, games, and some fun activities, I have lots of ideas for you below!

  • Make a Bird Color Bar Graph to keep track of what types of birds visit each day.
  • List 5 birds of prey, 5 song birds, 5 Water Fowl, and 5 birds that cannot fly.
  • Put together this free Bird Journal and and expand this activity into a full unit study.
  • Put together a Bird Nesting Bag to provide birds with some extra supplies for nest building.
  • List 3 birds that are now extinct and 3 that are endangered.
  • Make a sensory bin for younger children with bird seed as the base, add in nest building materials like sticks, and small plastic birds for some educational play.
  • Try making your own birds nest with found items in the yard like sticks, bits of string, grass, moss, and, vines.
  • Find out what your state bird is and draw a picture or paint a picture of it.
  • Research what 5 traits make a bird like feathers, wings, beaks or bills, laying eggs, and an adapted skeleton.
  • Use craft feathers as manipulatives for counting or to create a craft.
  • Use a roll of art paper and a yard stick to measure the wingspan of an eagle. Seeing it drawn really gives a better idea of size.

As well as spelling words, I’ve gathered up some bird writing prompts below.

Writing Prompts for Bird Unit Study

  • If you could be any kind of bird what would you be and why?
  • One day as I was flying high above I saw…
  • What do you think the birds are singing about? Put it into words.
  • You wake up and a giant eagle is waiting outside your window, you climb on his back, tell about your adventures.
  • What do you think birds do for fun?
  • What is your favorite bird and why?

You’ll love these other resources for learning about birds:

  • Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity
  • Hands-On Nature Study: Make a Fun Bird Nesting Bag
  • Colorful Winter Bird: Northern Cardinal Lapbook & Unit Study
  • Easy and Fun Nature Study: Beautiful Birds
  • Winter Nature Craft: How to Make Easy DIY Bird Feeders
  • Free Bird Journal – Hands-on Nature (Coloring & Identification Pages)
  • How Animals Cope With the Cold (Easy Nature Study)

Hugs and love ya,

2 CommentsFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, Nature Based Activities Tagged With: birdjournal, hands-on, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, homeschoolscience, life science, nature, nature journaling, nature study, science

Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity

June 13, 2018 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

As we’ve been working our way through the NaturExplorers : Beautiful Birds unit study, we’ve been learning so much about types of birds, what they eat, how they fly, and even where they go when they migrate. In our area, we tend to see the same few species of birds, but I still wanted the kids to be interested in observing them.

NaturExplorers  suggested graphing the different kinds of birds we observe in our neighborhood and one of the printable notebooking pages shows kids how to keep up with bird colors by using tally marks. My kids, though, needed a little practice with bar graphing.

So we decided to do a bird color bar graphing activity to keep them watching out for the feathered friends who frequent our family home!

Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity

To do this bird color bar graphing activity, you’ll need the following supplies:

  • Graphing paper
  • Colored pencils
  • Clipboard (optional)

You don’t have to use a clipboard, but I found that having it helped the kids keep up with their graphing much better. Especially when they’re outside and they decide to have an impromptu dirt digging session, which happened on more than one occasion.

Bird Bar Graphing Supplies

We used colored pencils for the bird colors we see the most often. We see lots of cardinals and blue jays, so we included red and blue. But we also see lots of brown thrashers and crows, which meant including brown and black as well.

Making a Bar Graph of Bird Sightings

To make the graphing simpler, we started the bars by just coloring the first outer square edges. That way, we’d make even bar shapes going up.

If you don’t keep a bar graph neat from the beginning, the bars will look crooked and make the graph almost impossible to read. (Ask me how I know.)

Graphing Local Bird Colors

We saw a good number of cardinals, but we saw even more blue jays. I love them both.

Making a Bar Graph of Bird Colors

But we saw more crows than any other kind of bird! That was pretty neat.

Graphing Bird Colors with Kids

We suspected that it was because we usually saw individual cardinals and blue jays (and even brown thrashers). But crows were always in big groups. It’s common to see 15 of them at once sitting on a telephone line.

More Hands-on Math Nature Study

  • 15 Hands-On Nature Math Ideas to Make Learning Come to Life

We’ll see if the crows stay on top over the next few weeks or if they’re upset by one of the other bird species.

The kids absolutely loved doing this activity. And they were getting some math practice without even knowing it. That’s always a win in my book.

Share these other hands-on nature study activities when you’re learning about birds with the kids!

  • Northern Cardinal Lapbook & Unit Study
  • How to Make Easy DIY Bird Feeders
  • Easy and Fun Nature Study: Beautiful Birds

Hugs and love ya,

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, Middle School Homeschool, Science Based, Teach Homeschool Math Tagged With: birdjournal, birds, hands-on, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, life science, math, nature study

American Robin Free Printables, Resources and Crafts

March 1, 2016 | 11 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I rounded up some fun American Robin free printables, resources, and crafts to kick off a spring unit study.

American Robin Unit Study Ideas

American Robin Free Printables, Resources and Crafts

We pulled out the chalk pastels today, used our Chalk Pastel reference tutorial book that we love, which by the way was created by a homeschool mom and Tiny decided to sketch and do a chalk pastel of the American Robin.

A Seasonal Start in Spring Chalk Pastels

By the way, there is a guide for each season. I love this download because Tiny can read through it on his own.

The American Robin – First Sign of Spring

Art for All Ages Bundle
Sketch of the American Robin @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Like his mom, Tiny is not comfortable with art. However, with some coaxing to change the pace of our day, he pulled out the chalk pastels.

I have tried my best through the years to be sure each son views art as enrichment and pleasure. The emphasis has always been on the pleasure of art and not so much the product.

American Robin Chalk Pastel @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

However, I think he did quite well with this American Robin. Of course, he had to sketch it first so it would be “perfect”.

American Robin Free Printables, Resources and Crafts

I tried to talk him out of it and to use the pastels to free flow, but he really liked the way it came out and more importantly, we enjoyed a change in pace.

We read some online about American Robins and enjoyed listening to the sound of them too. We’ll be looking out to see one or two this year also.

I gathered up some free and fun resources to help round out a unit study or quick study.

North American Red Robin Free Lapbook @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Free Printables & Reference

American Robin lapbook
American Robin Menu
American Robin 3 page information
Coloring Page

American Robin Facts for Kids
Fun Facts About the Robin
6 page pdf. along with helpful map, habitat and facts.
Robin bird house plans for a nest shelf
Several American Robin Coloring Pages

Story of Robin Eggs
Bird Feather Types – scroll down close to the end of the page. Nice pictures of feathers and beaks.
Free printable critical reading passage with answers.
Easy find the bird crossword puzzle
How to identify a robin’s nest

bird-notebook-field-page-.png

50 page pdf download coloring pages of different birds, including the American Robin
Grab my free printables for a bird notebook

American Robin Foot print

(image source: Sweet and Simple Life. Note: please give credit by pinning from original sources.)

Photos, Crafts and YouTube American Robin

Footprint American Robin. Isn’t that the cutest thing ever? What a perfect spring keepsake!
YouTube Mamma bird feeding her young video. There is a cool scene in this video. It is must watch, I but don’t like the music. (so distracting)
American Robin Mini-Documentary YouTube
Eggs hatching photos
Making a rockin’ robin with a cereal box

Paper craft robin
American Robin at a Glance

I hope you can use some of these free and fun resources to squeeze in a few days of learning about spring and the American Red Robin.

American Robin Free Printables, Resources and Crafts

You’ll love these other crafts and ideas:

  • 10 More Spring Study Free Resources for Middle and High School Kids
  • John Muir Spring Unit Study (and Hands-on Geography Ideas)
  • Middle School Homeschool Science 50 Free Spring Activities
  • Fun Kids Activity How to Make Wildflower Seed Bombs
  • Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook 
  • Foraging and Feasting Nature Unit Study and Lapbook 
  • Kinder Gardening to Celebrate Nature and Science
  • Hands-On Nature Study: Bird Color Bar Graphing Activity
  • Hands-On Mixed Media Flower Art Fun Nature Study

Hugs and love ya,

American Robin Free Printables, Resources and Crafts @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.

11 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, Hands-On Activities, Science Tagged With: birdjournal, birds, earthscience, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, homeschoolscience, life science, science, sciencecurriculum, spring

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