march 2024
What makes a home?
With the warm weather for a week this month, the school age program was so excited about the birds, animals, and bugs starting to come out! Last week, the children noticed that some birds had begun to come out which began a bird watching interest. This week, the children began discussing what birds need to live and how to make suitable homes for them. Using loose parts such as cardboard, large buttons, wallpaper, masks, paper towel rolls, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, and string, the children found ways to create different homes for the birds.
“My house has 4 different rooms and I put some wallpaper to make it look like a room from [a movie],” said A as he glued cardboard box corners together.
“I’m making a birdhouse with walls so the birds don’t get cold from the wind while they eat their bird seed,” said A. M.
“I’m putting a small egg carton at the top here for food so they can stand here {on the platform} and eat food,” said A
The experience continued in the outdoors as they tried to find the perfect places for birds to be able to reach the houses. Looking through the bushes and trees, the children found places that would keep the wind from blowing the houses away and keeping the birds comfortable.
“I’m going to put mine in the low tree so the birds can get to it and so I can reach it to fill it with more food after they eat it all,” said A. M.
“We should put the birdhouse somewhere to hide from the rain,” said A.
The school age children also had some challenges that they encountered with holding the seeds in the birdhouses. Lots of the children noticed that the bird seed kept falling out of their birdhouses when they put it in the tree. One of the children suggested the seeds should be glued to the bottom so they wouldn’t move. Although it solved the issue of the seeds falling, it presented another issue.
“If the seeds are glued to the birdhouse, how are the birds going to pick up the food?” asked S.
The children found a new solution and created walls on their birdhouses to avoid the seeds from falling out! It was great to see the school age children working together to solve their problems!
Jen Kesner RECE, Bobbi Abraham RECE,
Gagandeep Kaur B Phys Honours, BEd, MEd, specializing in environment and sustainability
