Birds in a nest

Birds in a nest
(ages 4 and older)
Here’s what you need:
collage materials
chart tablet and marker
bird’s nest or pictures of nests

1. Gather children in a large circle. Introduce the activity by telling the children that they will build a giant bird nest.
2. Look at a nest or pictures. Talk about how the grasses, string, and twigs are laced together to form a solid structure.
3. Invite the children to sit in a large circle. Ask one child to be the builder.
4. Instruct the builder to move the arms and legs of the group so they intertwine.
5. Challenge the children to rock gently to make sure their nest is sturdy and safe for eggs even in a gentle breeze.
6. Review the construction with focus on each of the intelligences.

Bodily-kinesthetic: Invite children to fly into the center of the nest without bumping the edges. Ask children to pretend to be eggs hatching. Encourage all the children to fly away from the nest at the end of the activity.
Interpersonal: Have a conversation about how the bird would feel if it had to share its nest with another bird.
Linguistic: Ask children to dictate words that describe the nest. Transcribe the words on a chart.
Naturalist: Invite children to look for birds and nests on the playground. Provide identification books and other resource materials. Encourage children to make a list of the birds they have identified.
Spatial: Invite children to recreate a bird’s nest—in sculpture, a pencil drawing, paint, or collage.
Musical: Repeat the nest building and ask children to make mouth noises to accompany the weaving, egg hatching, and flying activities.
Logical-mathematical: Explore the number patterns represented by two arms and two legs on each child. Investigate the size of the nest with a variety of measuring tools. Develop a graph that represents information about the nest.
Intrapersonal: Have a conversation about how a bird feels before, during, and after a nest is built.

http://www.childcarequarterly.com/fall06_story1.html