Birds:   Songs & poems: Three Little Birds Don't worry 'bout a thing, 'Cause ev'ry little thing's gonna be all right. Singing don't worry 'bout a thing, 'Cause ev'ry little thing's gonna be all right. Rise up this morning, smile with the risin' sun. Three little birds sit by my doorstep singing sweet songs, A melody sweet and pure, sing, This is my message to you.    Little White Duck    There's a little white duck (quack)   Sittin' in the water   There's a little white duck (quack)   Doin what he oughter.   He took a bite of the lily pad   Flapped his wings & he said,   "I'm glad, I'm a little white duck   Sittin' in the water."   (Quack, quack, quack) SWANS IN THE PARK   (tune:"rock-a-bye baby")     Swans glide across the pond in the park,   With feathers so white and beaks that are dark.   They spread out there wings and take to the air.   The swans fly away, but I don't know where.   Sung to : "Frere Jacques"   I'm a duck, I'm a duck,   Watch me waddle, watch me waddle.   Hear me when I talk,   Hear me when I talk.   Quack, quack, quack; quack, quack, quack. I Had A Little Rooster I had a little rooster by the old barn gate And that little rooster was my playmate And that little rooster went cock-a-doodle-do Dee-doodley-doodley-doodley-do (substitute other animals)   Five and five eggs   Five and five eggs    Hold up hands   That makes ten   Sitting on top is mother hen    Fold one hand over the other   Crackle crackle crackle    Clap hands three times   What do I see    fingers around eyes   Ten fluffy chickens   As yellow as can be    hold up ten fingers.   Five Little Birds   -   poem    Five little birds in a nest in a tree    (hold up right hand)    Are just hungry as can be    "Peep", said baby bird number one    (wiggle one finger)    Mother bird promised she would come    "Peep, Peep", said baby bird number two,    If she doesn't come what will we do?    "Peep, Peep, Peep", said baby bird number three,    I hope she can find this tree.    "Peep, Peep, Peep, Peep", said baby bird number four,    She never was so late before.    "Peep, Peep, Peep, Peep, Peep", said baby bird number five,    When will our mother bird arrive?    Well, here she comes to feed her family    (use left hand as mommy bird)    They're all as happy as can be!     *The Chickadee Song   (Fly your fingers away one by one as you sing this song)   Chorus:   Chickadee, chickadee, happy and gay   Chickadee, chickadee, fly away.     Five little chickadees, no room for more,   One flew away, and then there were four.     Four little chickadees, sitting in a tree,   One flew away, and then there were three.     Three little chickadees, don't know what to do,   One flew away, and then there were two.     Two little chickadees, sitting in the sun,   One flew away, then there was one.     One little chickadee, can't have any fun.   He flew away, and then there were none.     *Birds Fly High   Sung to 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star'     Birds fly high and bees fly low,   Caterpillars crawl and river flow,   Cats meow and cows go 'moo'.   Puppies bark and babies 'coo'.   So many things to see and hear,   I use my eyes and I use my ears.     *Two Little Blackbirds    Two little blackbirds   Sitting on a wall;   One named Peter,   The other named Paul.   Fly away Peter!   Fly away Paul!   Come back Peter!   Come back Paul!     *Shredded Wheat Nests   Materials: Large shredded wheat biscuits, glue or maybe marshmallow glue and candy eggs   Activity: For each child crumble one large shredded wheat biscuit into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup white glue or melted marshmallow. Help the child pile the mixture on top of a plastic lid. Let child shape into a nest and add the eggs. Materials:  Big pipe cleaners and cheerios. Hook one end of pipecleaner and have children add cheerios until 1 inch from top.  Bend pipe cleaner over cheerios so they will stay on.  Make the pipe cleaner with cheerios look like a J.   Hook over tree limb for birds to enjoy.      *Birder feeder   Use large coffee can with both ends cut out, then cut a piece of wood that goes just about 1/2 way up & put in both ends, then hook a piece of wire on the top so you could hang it. Paint. Send home a ziplock bag full of bird seed with each feeder to start them out. (Ask your parents to send the kids in clothes they don't care about that day.)      *Make a bird in a birds nest by giving them half a paper plate, let them add skinny brown rectangles for twigs.....use some real twigs if you have them, and pieces of string, and whatever else you may have...to glue on plate for nest.  Then either do a footprint in yellow, add beak, eye and legs, or dip the side of their hand in yellow (or whatever color their bird is) paint & add finger print toes....then beak, eye & legs.  Glue bird into nest.     *Paint on egg shaped easel paper with blue tempera paint that has sand added. These make pretty robin eggs.     *BLUEBIRD BLUEBIRD   Children join hands & stand in circle. Construct one bluebird necklace out of construction paper. One child is first bluebird & weaves in & out of children's arms while chanting (3 times) Bluebird, bluebird through my window. Who will be the next bluebird? That child then chooose someone who has not had a turn to be the next bird & that child wears neckalce. Play until everyone has a turn.      *Birdseed Biscuits 2 cups biscuit baking mix  1/2 cup cold water   2 tbsp margarine  2 tbsp seseme seeds   2 tbsp sunflower seeds   Preheat oven to 425F. Form a soft dough with baking mix 7 water. Roll out the dough to 3/4" thickness & cut it into shapes with cookie cutters.Using a straw, punch a hole in the top of each cookie.  Melt the margarine & brush over dough.  Sprinkle the seeds & nuts onto the dough and press it in FIRMLY with a fork. Bake for 15-20 min., or until light brown.  When cool, thread brightly coloured ribbon through the hole & hang in a tree.     *GREAT web site on birds.  Pictures, facts & book suggestions: Birding - Internet Resources from The Mining Company (Keyword to: http://birding.miningco.com/msub1.htm) Paper Plate Owl You will need paper plates (the kind with the ridged edges), circles of orange construction paper for eyes. V-shaped pieces of orange construction paper for bills and claws, a magic marker, brown tempera paint, and glue. Using the magic marker, draw cutting lines on each paper plate at 10, 2, 5 and 7 O'clock, and along the inner edge of the ridges (these will be the wings). Have the children cut their plates on the lines, then have them paint the pieces of the paper plate with brown tempera paint and let dry. Staple the owl's wings to the bodies for the children (or use brads for more moveable wings). Have the children glue the eyes, beaks & claws onto their owls.   Rainbow Birds   You'll need.... Newspaper, scissors, 1 paper plate, paints, paint brushes,glitter          (optional), Stickers (optional), white glue,1 six inch peice of pipe cleaner, tape                            2  cut out circles one bigger than the other (smaller circle is head)    1) Cover your work area with newspaper. To make the bird tail, cut a 6 inch circle out of a paper plate or use a 6 inch paper plate. Cut a narrow strip off the bottom of the paper circle. Paint the paper circle. or decorate with glitter or stickers.   2) Glue the bird Head to the bird body ( little circle on top of big circle) Glue the bod to the bird tail. Make face any way you want.   3) For the legs and feet, fold the pipecleaner in half. Bend each end of the pipecleaner out about 3/4 inch. Tape the feet to the back of the bird body. adjust the feet so your Rainbow bird will stand up.. ( The bird should look like a Peacock or turkey)     Fruity  Nest to Nibble   You'll need: mixing bowl, 2 lg shredded wheat biscuits, measuring cups + spoons 1/4 cup coconut , 1 Tlbs. brown sugar, 1/4 cup margarine or butter (melted), Muffin tin          Foil fruit or jelly beans 1) To make the nests, in a mixing bowl crumble shredded wheat  biscuits with your fingers. Use a spoon to stir in coconut and sugar. With adult help, pour in the melted margarine. Stir everything together. 2) Line each of the 6 muffin cups with a piece of foil. Press the shredded wheat mixture onto the bottoms & up the sides of the foil-line cups. With adult help, bake in 350 oven about 10 minutes or till crips. Cool the nests in the cups. 3) Remove the nests from cups by lifting up on the foil. Carefully peel the foil off nests. Fill the nest with fruity bird eggs. If desired, top the furit with a spoonful of yogurt.   Flamingo - 1 large & 1 small pink pompom, pink  & yellow pipe cleaner & wiggly eyes & pink feathers. I used cool melt glue. Make legs with about 4" of pink pipe cleaner. Glue to big pink pompom Cut two 1" pieces of pink pipe cleaner & twist around bottoms of legs to form feet. Cut one 2" piece of pink pipe cleaner for neck. Glue between big & small pink pompom. Cut small piece of yellow pipe cleaner to make beak. Glue beak & wiggly eyes if you want to use them. Glue two pink feathers on each side of big pompom. It doesn't stand up, but my son enjoyed making & playing with it. Chick - 1 large & 1 small yellow pompom, orange pipe cleaner & wiggly eyes & yellow feathers. Glue pompoms together. Cut two orange pipe cleaners pieces about 2 inches long, twist centers together, glue on for feet. Cut small beak out of orange pipe cleaner glue to face & add wiggly eyes. Glue some yellow feathers if you like. Bird’s nests items needed: pretzel sticks, chocolate chips, jelly beans, waxed paper Give each child a piece of waxed paper & a few pretzel sticks. Have them arrange their sticks into a nest. In the meantime, melt choclate chips. Drizzle melted choclate over pretzel stick nests. When chocolate cools, place jelly beans on nests. *File folder game: Cut 10 egg shapes from white construction paper. Decorate eggs then cut them into halves varying the cut pattern (zig zag, wavy, straight,etc.). Glue one half of a set into a folder. Have the children match the halves. There is a cute bird on ...pack-o-fun.com/projects. Give children an outline of bird or have them draw their own...fairly large because the wings and tail will be craft sticks. Paint the sticks to match the body color...we did the blue bird of happiness! Use 2 sticks for the wing and three for the tail-the suggestion is to have the middle   stick of the tail out more than the other two.   www.craftnet.org has a fun birdhouse on the bb. Take a nature   walk and collect "good stuff". Paint a toilet tissue tube & glue a black circle for the door...use a toothpick for the perch. A pine cone makes a good "top"...or leaves, etc. Decorate with other leaves, moss or other natural things. A piece of bark makes a bottom. Attach yarn or wire at the top so your birdhouse can hang "inside"! Owl Babies is a great book.     Bag Owls   Loosely stuff a bag full of crumbled newspaper. Bring the top together & fold the two puter edges in toward the center & glue to form a point.  Fold the point down.  Cut eyes & feet from construction paper & glue to the owl.   Big grocery bags will make grandfather owl, small candy bags turn into baby owls, & all sizes between are the flock.   Make a tree with no leaves. Big enough to fit your flannel board   Make birdies one each of red, yellow, green, purple, orange, blue, black, brown.   You can make two or tree of each color so each child will have one.     Give each child a colored birdie.   Place the tree on the flannel board   song     Little Red bird  in the tree   in the tree, in the tree   Little Red bird in the tree   Sing me a song.   The child or children who have a red bird   Places the bird on the tree and sings Tweet Tweet.     This is great for younger children to learn their colors. I find the older children love it as they get to hold a bird and place it on the tree.     Birds Birds Birds   Have the children bring birds to school. Stuffed animals or figurines.If anyone has a real bird, that would be great!  Give them a chance to show what they have brought.     Cracking Eggs   All birds are hatched from eggs so give the children a quick lesson in cracking eggs. If an egg is not fertilized it is good for eating. After you have shown how to crack an egg, let each child try cracking one of their own. Children love cracking eggs & rarely get to do it. You can use the cracked eggs to make scrambled eggs for snack.     Bird Calls   Ask the children if anybody knows how to sound like a bird. Let them try one by one. They should be able to do a chicken, a turkey, a song bird, a baby chick. Let them think of others.   Variation:   Let the children come up one at a time & make a bird call. Let the rest of the children try to guess what kind of bird they are.       Good Book   The Best Nest   by P.D. Eastman / Beginner Books / Random House     Ahead of time, ask the parents if anybody has a nest. If so, it's fun to study the nest to see what birds use to make their nests.     Messy Table   Wild Birdseed   Fill a couple of large tubs with wild bird seed. Provide the children with funnels, measuring cups, measuring spoons, bowls etc. Spend some time at the table talking with the children about measurements. "How many quarter cups will it take to fill up this cup?" "How many teaspoons are there in this quarter cup? Let's count them."Let them count and measure, pour & stir.     Cut & Color Table   Squawking Toucan Beaks   Provide each child with a snow cone cup. (cone-shaped) Let them decorate their "beaks" with colorful markers. Allow them to spend some time on this project. You may want to hang some colorful pictures of real toucans near the table to show how colorful toucans are. Use a hole punch to make a hole on each side and tie a piece of yarn to each side to hold the beak onto the child's face.     Creative Art   Birds Of A Feather...   Things you'll need:   Four Large feathers   Four colors of paint on paper plates   Construction paper   small, fluffy, colorful feathers   Let the children use the feathers to paint a light and airy picture. Remind them that the less paint they put on their feathers the more feathery the painting will be. When they are finished painting, let them stick small, fluffy feathers into the paint. This will be beautiful!     Outside   Flying Parrots   Let the children put on their parrot beaks from the cut & color table. If you have colorful scarves, let them take turns making their scarves dance as they fly through the air squawking like a parrot. The teacher should be wearing a beak. She should fly first and call to her babies to fly with her. If you do not have colorful scarves, use paper streamers. Ahead of time, cut paper streamers into long strips & tape them together at one end. The children can make the streamers dance as they fly through the air. Little Bird One little bird with feathers of blue; Flew beside the green one and then there were two. Two little birds singing in the tree; The red bird came to join them and then there were three. Three little birds, wishing there were more; Along came the purple bird and then there were four. Four little birds, happy to be alive; Found a little yellow one, and then there were five. Five little birds as happy as can be. Singing beautiful songs - just for you and me! Feathered BIrds Five feathered birds sitting on the door; One flew away and then there were four. Four feathered birds singing in the tree, One flew away and then there were three. Three feathered birds looking at you, One flew away and then there were two. Two feathered birds sitting in the sun, One flew away and then there was one. One feathered bird looking like a hero, He flew away and now there are zero! Little Bird I saw a little bird go hop, hop, hop. I told the little bird to stop, stop, stop. I went to the window to say "How do you do?" He wagged his little tail and far away he flew! Two Little Birds Two little birdies sitting on a hill; One named Jack, the other named Jill. Fly away Jack, Fly away Jill; Come back, Jack, Come back, Jill.