How To Go Bird Watching In Your Backyard With Toddlers & Preschoolers!

momstown Oakville moms and kids came ready to learn all about our theme of the month, 'birds', for our Little Scientist program.  Each little one made binoculars by glueing scrapbook paper around toilet paper rolls, stapling them together, punching a hole in the side and stringing ribbon through, and then decorating with bird stickers.  Then we looked at a few pages of birds in some books, and studied our bird diagram sheets, with the labels of all the parts of 4 birds - Blue Jay, Woodpecker, Great Blue Heron and Loon.

Birds hidden in the backyard, ready to be discovered!

Oakville moms and kids talked about the four things that make birds, birds: their bodies are covered in feathers, they have wings, they lay eggs, and they are warm blooded.  Then we headed out into the backyard, armed with our binoculars, our bird fact sheets, and pencils to tally up how many of each bird we saw.

Our bird fact sheets

Using the binoculars he made to find those birds!

We talked about what a tally was, and how it is a good way to count things and all you have to do is put a line beside the picture each time you see that bird.  We had fun finding the 10 bird cut outs that were hidden in the backyard, and we also saw and heard a few real birds as well - a cardinal and a dove.  We sat in the shade and counted our tally marks, and talked about where we found the birds, which ones were our favourites, and what each bird looked like.  The Little Scientist program ended with a few books about birds and our little scientists went home very happy after spending their morning bird watching!

We run a Little Scientist program every month and would welcome you to join us.  Find out more about becoming a momstown Oakville member by clicking here.  A one year membership is $45 a year and includes a 12 month subscription to Today's Parent magazine!