The Guilletos Playful Learning: Pine cone feeder

I know it is spring but believe it or not bird feeding isn't just a winter activity; it is still freezing outside these days, which means that many insect populations haven’t emerged. So, basically, food is still scarce for our feathered friends.

This is an activity I meant to do during our winter month but for some reason, it never happened. So this week, as we talk about animals in Spring, I also remind the children of our garden friends. The children made some bird feeders to bring home today. But I will make sure to make some for playschool too with my own kids to provide them with the opportunity to watch them and match them to a series of cards I have made myself (clap hands!). I have used actual photographs of birds visiting our playschool garden here in the South east of Ireland. These cards are a great identification guide for them. Each picture are labelled for pre-literacy purposes.

Below are the photos of the children during our activity.

We are blessed here with the surroundings we live in: a rugged seashore with sandy beaches basically at our door step and a colourful site surrounded by big tall pine trees. Nothing else but fresh air. An idyllic little spot to teach the children about nature! We have LOADS & LOADS of pine cones to pick up right at our feet. So we are using them to create our bird feeder. (Sorry the quality is not the best but I am waiting for my husband to buy me a new camera!!)

We collect that amount of pine cones everyday..

Last year, I used peanut butter exclusively. Yet, this year, I have one child who has food allergies. For this reason, I used stork instead(vegetable oil fat) and it worked just as well! And I have been told it is also better for birdies: peanut butter can get stuck in their gizzards, while butter provides lubrication!! You can also use lard.Clever!

So this is how we did it: