Birds

One fun aspect of learning about creation is learning things about birds.  You might not think there's really all that much to gain with a rather narrow topic.  It's really not easy to observe birds because they don't let you get up close to them.  They all basically do the same things and they all pretty much look alike.  All of that is true, BUT we can still use one topic and cover many many different necessary skills.

Let's start with math and science.  These two areas of learning often go hand in hand.

We had several fun activities including this wooden bird patterning game called "Happy Birds".  There is a perch with room for 4 birds and a tray with parts and pieces of birds in different colors.  The Bunnies can make their own birds or they can choose to create birds identical to the ones on the pattern cards.  This is great for visual discrimination skills (translation: can they look at a 2D picture and replicate it in 3D?)

We had a simple peg board with pictures of birds and little tags with the same pictures of birds all jumbled in a dish.  The Bunnies sorted and categorized the birds by attributes and put them in their proper places on the peg board.  Everyone who tried this game liked it!

Sorting, categorizing and patterning are all preschool math and science skills learned through play.

Stay tuned for birds in literacy and art...