Join Us for Bird Week
/Hi Cottage Family,
Our hearts are with you as we all try to navigate this confusing and scary time. For those of you at home, we’d like to offer a few activities each week that correspond with our weekly theme! You can try them with your kiddos and even post pictures of your adventures or creations to our Cottage Facebook page! We’ll try to post new activities on the blog each Monday, so check back next week for more ideas! Have fun!
This week we are learning about BIRDS! Here are some bird-themed activities to try at home!
Sing along with Dr. Jean
We sing lots of Dr. Jean songs at the Cottage! Watch this cute video of hers with bird songs and a bird story!
Visit Dr. Jean’s YouTube channel to find other fun and educational videos!
Put on a Puppet Show
Bend author and artist, Kristen Riggle, visited the Cottage earlier this year. She read her book Little Bird Explores Bend! to our kindergarten class. Some of you may have this book at home! Kristen has created several activity pages for parents and kids. One activity page is full of puppets! Color and cut out these puppets. Glue or tape each one to a stick, and put on a puppet show!
Follow this link to find the puppet page and others!
The Busy Birds
Create Toilet Paper Roll Binoculars
Your toilet paper may be in short supply, but maybe you have a few empty rolls around the house. Tape or glue two rolls together so that they are side by side. Punch a hole in the top of both and tie a string to create a strap. Decorate and go birding outside or out your window!
The Art Bar Blog by Bar Rucci has some creative binocular decorating ideas as well as many other great craft activities!
Identify Birds
Once you’ve made your binoculars, you are ready for a real birding adventure! Watch and listen to the birds in your backyard or around your neighborhood. You could even create a simple bird journal by folding pieces of paper in half to form a book. Decorate the cover, and draw the birds that you see!
For an extra challenge, identify the birds in your yard or neighborhood! Merlin Bird ID app from Cornell Lab provides an excellent way to identify birds! Once you’ve downloaded the app and indicated your location, you have the option to “Start Bird ID.” Simply answer a few questions about the bird’s size, color, location, etc., and the app will help you identify the bird! Let us know what you find!
Draw Pigeon with Mo Willems
At the Cottage, we LOVE Mo Willems’ books! His characters, Pigeon, Piggie, and Gerald, are some of our favorites! During this time of quarantine, Mo Willems has been creating videos where he shares pictures from his books and teaches children how to draw some of his iconic characters! In this episode, he draws Pigeon! (He also shares other fun info about the book, but if you’d like to skip right to the drawing, go to minute 17 in the video.) We can’t wait to see your Pigeon drawings!