birdseed | Today We Did

Items we used.

A came across this idea in one of her kindergarten readers and begged for us to try it out at home!

Coating the pinecone with peanut butter.

We tied a piece of string to the pinecone so that it could be hung up in a tree when we were finished, and then I helped A to cover the pinecone in peanut butter. This was a little messy, but A didn’t get nearly as much peanut butter on herself as I had thought she would.

Rolling the pinecone in birdseed.

Then A rolled the pinecone in a bowl of birdseed. We used a basic parrot mix because most of the birds that hang about in our yard are parrots such as cockatoos and galahs. A pressed as much seed into the sticky peanut butter as she could, completely covering the pinecone. When the pinecone could hold no more seed, we took it into the yard and hung it up in a large bottlebrush tree.

Making sure the whole pinecone was covered.

And now we wait for the birds to come and have a feast.

Our new bird feeder hanging in a tree.

I found an old bag of wild bird seed in the laundry cupboard this week. I’m not sure how long it had been there, but it still looked fine, so I pulled it out to do something with. I remembered how much fun A had at the school’s ‘Stay and Play’ when they put out bird seed to play with one morning. So I tipped the rest of the bag of seed into two of our play tubs, one for each child, as they told me they didn’t want to share it today.

Having fun.

Whisking.

They enjoyed running their fingers through it, and watching the seeds drop back into the tub. Then they got busy with the funnels and sieve, as well as some of the measuring cups, spoons and jugs. L picked out a lot of the sunflower seeds and put them into her jug. A put her feet in the tub to see what it would feel like, and then proceeded to sit in the tub for further fun. They made bird seed pancakes and muffins, and whisked it round and round. Then they started stealing it from each other, leading to some screaming and complaining…. that didn’t last though, the bird seed was too much fun, and they went back to playing nicely together.