MINI MONDAY

For The Birds

Cheep cheep! Can you hear the birds outside? Get artsy as you create your own avian fun indoors, and help your colourful, feathered friends grow big and strong!

Materials

• Coloured Paper
• Scotch Tape
• Painters Tape
• Glue
• Markers/Pencil Crayons
• Scissors
• Bowls
• Aluminium Foil
• Cotton Balls

Directions:

• Decide together with your little one how many birds you would like to create. Cut a piece of coloured paper in half, roll it, and tape it closed to create a tube! Use different colours of paper to create many coloured birds!
• Time to decorate your birds! Cut out wings from coloured paper and use the tape or glue to attach them to your bird. Use markers or pencil crayons to add on eyes, a beak, or any other decorations you can imagine!
• Using painters tape, attach your birds to the wall. Be sure that they are at a height that your little one can reach
• Take a piece of paper and cut it into four sections. Cut four pieces of aluminium foil into the same size. Gather four cotton balls. Place all of these on the ground in front of your birds
• Gather a number of bowls equal to your number of birds. Place one bowl on the ground below each bird
• With your child, begin crumpling up the pieces of paper so that they form small balls. As you do so, talk with your child about how the paper feels. What does it sound like when you crumple it up?
• Repeat this step with the aluminium foil. How does it feel? What does it sound like when you crumple it up?
• Finally, touch the cotton balls. Do we need to crumple these up? How do they feel? What do they sound like when you squish them?
• One by one, place the crumpled paper, aluminium foil, and cotton balls into the top of each bird, so that they fall down into the bowl below. You can ask your little one to feed a specific colour of bird, use all of one type of food, or feed a bird a specific number of times!

Keep the fun and learning going! Can you…

• Put your fine motor skills to the test? Try using salad tongs or tweezers to pick up the crumpled paper, aluminium foil, and cotton balls for some extra fine-motor fun!
• Race to feed the birds as quickly as you can? Those feathered friends just can’t wait! Time your little one to see how quickly they can feed each and every bird!
• Think of the different birds you’ve heard outside? Mimic different bird noises as you feed each of your feathered friends!

Essential Learning Experiences

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are developed when children learn to use their smaller muscles, like the ones in their hands, fingers, and wrists. Fine motor skills are used for everything from picking up a utensil to eat, buttoning clothing, and holding a pencil when learning to write.

This week’s activity helps to support the development of fine motor skills by encouraging children to use either their fingers, the salad tongs, or the tweezers to pick up the “bird food” and feed it to the birds. Each of these tools requires a different level of fine motor control.

Developing Sensory Awareness

Sensory development allows children to make sense of the information being received by their senses. It includes touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. This week’s activity helps to promote sensory development and awareness by allowing children to experience different textures among the different types of “bird food”, and to think about how each of these materials feel and sound.

Stay tuned for more resources to help spark kids’ creative learning!

Donate Today

Your support of the Children’s Museum is more important than ever during these difficult times. If you are able, please consider making a donation today.