Playing with STEM: Birds

Hi Everyone! This program is called Playing with STEM. It is a STEM program for 2-5 year olds. It is primarily play, because at that age, I just want to make science, technology, engineering and math fun!

In this program we learned about birds, one of my personal passions. There were stations all around the room that the kids visit with their parents. Each station had a sign to give some instructions and a fun fact. Here are the bird stations:

**The children were greeted with a handout on birds, map of local parks, page of bird pictures and seeds to plant in the yard.**

Birding
A great nature activity for children is birding (what some people call bird watching.) Birds are one of the easiest animals to spot in the wild. Most other animals are too shy.

For our activity, the children received binoculars made from toilet paper tubes wrapped in construction paper. They were able to decorate their binoculars with pens. Then, there was a scavenger hunt of birds that they could spot around the room.

Match the Birds
I have a collection of Audubon stuffed birds. The children would match the birds to the nest with the bird’s name. Under the name was a picture of the answer. Many of the the birds also had bird calls.

Bird Beaks
Children learned about how bird beaks work with this activity. They used clothespins to pick up worms (twisted chenille stems) and place them in a pot to pretend to feed the birds. There also was a poster of different bird beaks.

Nest Engineering
The children used plates, rafia, sticks, feathers, pinecones and chenille stems to build a nest for the birds. Once they were done, they tested their nest with plastic eggs and birds.

Bird Math
The children fed the birds seeds or worms to practice their counting.

Bird size comparison
Some children might not realize birds can be very big, so they could stand next to a life size poster comparing a Bald Eagle and a Hummingbird.

Bird Feeder Craft
The children made a bird feeder using Cheerios and a pipe cleaner. This is good for hand eye coordination. I put the Cheerios in baggies to keep them more sanitary.