Sometimes when grandchildren are going to be spending the day with me, I’m very organized and plan out details of their visit. Other times, I just wing it! This past week when three of them were going to be spending the day with me, plus having a sleepover, I was organized!
When planning their visit, I was thinking about the things we could do together, and I decided to plan some activities and crafts around the letter B, specifically “B is for bird”.
My plans included:
- Worksheets – I printed these from Education.com
- Coloring pages of a variety of birds – These I printed from First-School
- Read books with bird characters
- Bird nest craft
- Making a birdbath
- Song with fingerplay – Two Little Blackbirds
That should keep us busy for a little while!
Birdbath
Materials required:
- 3 Clay pots – 8”, 10”, 12”
- Clay Saucer
- Washable paint of your choice, such as: acrylic, tempera, poster paints
- Paint brushes and anything you might want to stencil with
- Clear acrylic sealer spray
- Silicone adhesive
- Something to cover and protect the work area
Procedure:
When I went to purchase clay pots for this project, the selection was very limited so I wasn’t able to get the exact sizes I wanted. I found three that would work, though they didn’t fit together quite as well as I would have liked.
- To ensure you have a clean surface for painting, clean the pots and saucer with a damp rag and allow them to dry completely.
- Cover the work area with newspapers. I actually don’t use newspapers, I use an inexpensive vinyl tablecloth. I pick these up at the dollar store, or if I see them on clearance somewhere. I like having these to cover the table with any craft we’re working on.
- The first day we worked on painting our pots. I allowed them to paint their pots just as their creative juices dictated!
Six-year-old Maggie’s pot was very colorful and creative.
Four-year-old Jacob’s pot was basically a wide stripe pattern.
And two year old Zellene just wanted her pot to be pink and purple.
Little works of art, aren’t they!
- The following day, I applied several coats of acrylic sealant spray, allowing time to dry in between each one.
They were proud of their pots! The black shapes on Maggie’s are actually orca’s. You can definitely see that now can’t you (be honest)! Her and I have been watching Free Willy movies together which inspired that.
5. I then used an acrylic sealant and glued the saucer to the smallest pot. Since the pots I purchased didn’t fit together as well as I had hoped, I decided to glue the pots together for stability as well.
With their birdbath.
And it is a cute addition snuggled in between my coleus and dahlias.
Worksheets
Our worksheets included a page to find the hidden letter B in several places and a page to color balloons with a capital letter B one color and a lower case letter B another color.
Jacob is a minimalist when it comes to coloring!
Maggie knows her letters and sounds very well already, so she buzzed through and did some additional pages which included printing the upper and lowercase b’s and a “connect the dot letter” page.
Coloring Pages
The kids colored parrots and hummingbirds. Then they wanted to cut them out and tape them on the wall, which of course we did. This often happens with our coloring pages. We have had an entire zoo on our walls in the past!
Bird Nest Craft
Supplies needed:
- White paper plates
- Raffia (or anything else you choose to glue on the paper plate as nest material)
- Construction paper
- Googly eyes
- Feathers
What to do:
- Cut your paper plate into two pieces, with one half being slightly larger than the other.
- Cut out a very basic shape for your baby birds out of the construction paper
- Cut out beaks using an orange or yellow construction paper
- Glue the googly eyes on your bird
- Glue the beak on your bird
- Glue two feathers on your bird as wings
- Glue your bird in the nest
- Make two or three birds per nest
- Glue raffia or other nest material on the front of the “nest”
Zellene working on her bird.
Jacob says “I’m done!”
Reading
We read these books:
And thus our projects focused on the letter “b is for birds” were completed. Except for the song, because actually, I forgot! Do you remember this one:
Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill,
Put 2 forefingers and your thumb on each shoulder to represent birds.
One named Jack.
Hold out one set of fingers.
One named Jill.
Hold out the other set of fingers.
Fly away, Jack.
Place one hand behind your back.
Fly away, Jill.
Place other hand behind your back.
Come back, Jack.
Return one hand to a shoulder.
Come back, Jill.
Return the other hand to a shoulder.
The kids had fun, I had fun and I have a birdbath that I will treasure forever!
This post will be shared on the lovely link parties found on my “Where I Party” page.
