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Discussion
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Why do most birds build nests? Where do most birds lay their eggs? How do most birds protect their young?
Materials:
- Birds by Jane Werner Watson
- Plates and plastic knives
- Small mixing bowl
- A mixing spoon
- Napkins
- Wet wipes or water & paper towels
- Copy of recipe written on a large sheet of paper:
- Small or varied sized pretzels
- Flaked coconut
- Green food coloring (optional)
- Chocolate Icing
- Jellybeans or any other egg shaped candies
Steps:
- Read the book Birds by Jane Werner Watson, or any other informational book on birds
- Ask your children what they know about birds and what they would like to find out about birds. Birds is a non-fiction rhyming book so you can listen for the rhyming words, too.
- Ask, “Have you ever seen a bird’s nest?” If you have one, show it and explain that all birds do not build nests, but most birds do.
- Ask, “Why do birds build nests?’ They will be able to answer based on the book.
- Ask them if they can follow some of the steps in the book that birds use to build a nest? Show them the ingredients and ask them how they could create a nest like a bird does from them?
- Let them pretend to be a bird as they make “Bird Nest Treats.”
- Show them the recipe and read it together.
- Place flaked coconut into mixing bowl, add a few drops of green food coloring and mix well. The colored coconut represents grass.
- Then give your child the pretzel sticks which represent twigs and chocolate icing with represents mud.
- They can practice trying to build a bird nest using the pretzel sticks and chocolate icing.
- Once they have assembled the nest, you can give them a few jellybeans to put in so it looks like bird eggs.
- Eat!
Recipe Book
- Make a recipe book together.
- Have them write what they did “first”, “next” and “then”. If they can’t write yet, pre-write and print out the steps so they can cut the steps out and glue them in the proper order. Ordering or sequencing steps in a process is an important skill in general but it is an essential literacy skill.
- After “writing” the steps they can illustrate the process.
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