Birds Expanded

In a past post I shared my grand daughter experiencing her 

first play tray.

 This week I changed it up a bit.

 I moved the wooden pieces out of the tub and onto the floor to see how she would interact with them.

 Having them on the floor made it a lot easier for her to reach 

 and spend a bit more time exploring each piece.

  

After giving her some time playing with the small birds I switched them for

bigger stuffed bird toys.

Most of these make bird sounds when you press on the back.

It took a lot of effort on her part to make the birds sing.

She preferred to hand them to one of the adults to make it happen.

A few of them are finger puppets

and she was particularly interested in the crow.

Here she is flying like a bird.

First Play Tray - Birds

Last week I created a play tray for my grand daughter.

It was her first and I decided to make one about birds because her dad likes birds and shares that interest with her.

I kept it simple with pieces of wood and little, plastic bird figurines.

She liked the birds, especially when she heard me make bird noises.

But she showed more interest in the pieces of wood.

I involved myself a bit into her play here and incorporated the wood pieces and birds together.

She became more interested in the birds. 

Taking a good look at each of them.

She even made some of them fly around.

The next day I placed some dried moss in the bin to add a new texture.

I had found it when walking in the woods and

I thought it looked like a birds nest.

We continue our interests in birds when we go out for a walk.

So far we have heard a few different birds but have only seen crows.

She is learning to say "caa, caa".

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Gingerbread Bird Feeder

During after Christmas sales I picked up a cheap gingerbread house making kit with the idea to decorate it for the birds.  I've been pinning ideas from a variety of sites like this one and this one.

 

Yesterday I assembled the gingerbread house using the frosting included.  This morning it was solid and ready to be decorated.  I had planned on using popcorn and pretzels for decorations but after a bit of research learned that they are not healthy for birds.  So our decorations consisted of two kinds of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and oats.  Lard was spread on the house first to hold the seeds in place.

                   When it was ready we headed to the marsh to feed the birds.

                                         And they were hungry.

        We carried the bird seed house down the path, leaving seeds as we went.

                         Refilling some of the feeders that others had left.

                              Until we found a spot and left it behind.
                          We wonder what other animals might enjoy it.

 
As we spotted birds some of the children drew pictures.

                                 Others continued to feed the birds.
Standing patiently and quietly, hoping that one would land on their hand to eat.

 
It was exciting watching the birds fly from branch to branch. Showing their nerves as they came close then quickly flying away.

Cookies for the Birds

This morning we planned an outing to the marsh to feed the birds.
                     
We've been before because it’s very close to our school and is a short
           trail that our little ones can manage fairly easily.

We were going to make bird feeders but then I found this recipe at 
                            Imagine Childhood.
      
    It was a switch to bake cookies for the birds instead of ourselves. 
We followed the recipe, adding margarine, flour, oatmeal and baking powder.

                        
A fun part was when we added the egg, the recipe said to add the shell too. 
                         So we crushed it up with our hands.
  
Next we added bird seed and blueberries (we had some in the freezer)
                                and mixed it altogether.
                      
We rolled it out between two sheets of waxed paper and started to
                                use cookie cutters.

The cookie cutter didn’t work well so we decided to roll the dough into
                             balls and poke a hole in each.
             
They bake for about 15 or until hard and brown.  All ready to take the marsh.
   
We strung green yarn through the hole and looked for a tree to hang it from.
             
                The colours almost match the environment.
                          
                Will the birds find them?  Will they like them?