Kid Science: Feeding the Animals in the Winter

We have been doing a lot of things lately but I had so much stuff that I already shared that I kind of forgot to share the newest stuff with you until I ran out of scheduled posts.  We had read Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson before Thanksgiving and then read Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson before Christmas.  Then we found Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson while we were at the library one day.

We talked about hibernation and how other animals who are around in the winter need food.  I had a pipe cleaner that I took off a candy cane reindeer so he used that to add cheerios too.

He filled the whole thing very quickly.  I actually had to take a few off of the pipe cleaner to make sure that I could bend the ends together.  I bent it into a circle and we got bundled up to go outside.

He picked the tree that he wanted to hang it on and I put it on the branch.  I told him that the birds and squirrels wouldn't come to eat it until we went inside but he wanted to play.  We checked on it for a few days and none of the cheerios were eaten and we lost track of its progress.  Here is hoping that the animals liked it but I think that either way, my son used fine motor skills to make the bird feeder and learned that some animals hibernate and others don't.

We also got another bird feeder as a gift from a friend and he put it up in the other tree in the front yard.  I saw a few bite marks out of it the next day so I guess they liked it better (or the location).  We were going to make the peanut butter pinecones with seeds but the peanut butter that my son didn't like that moved to the back of the cupboard was bad so I didn't want to poison the animals with something that might not be healthy for them so it went to the garbage.

There are tons of crafts about making birdhouses and other bird feeders out of recycled materials around the house so I hope you take this opportunity to learn about a few animals and set out something to feed them.  The birds (and squirrels) will thank you!!!

Shared at Mom's Library