Before half term, we concluded our theme of birds by looking at where birds live. Everyone knows that birds live in nests, but do you know about the different types of nest?
There are nests made from twigs and mud, carefully woven together with grasses and moss to form neat little nests.
There are ‘messy’ nests, built high up in the trees without much thought or care, simply dropped sticks in a pile.
It is important that birds keep their eggs and chicks safe from predators, so many hide their nests in holes, either a hole in a roof or a natural hole found in a tree.
I have been lucky enough to find a few old nests over the years and the children were fascinated to see them up close and try to identify some of the unusual things used to build them, such as animal hair and tumble dryer fluff!
The challenge this week was to build a nest, using a clothes peg as a beak and no hands allowed! The children worked with varying levels of success to build either individual or collaborative nests. In the end everyone agreed that birds are very skilful and clever and that it would be easier to build a nest using our hands!
Reception children worked really well together and built a giant nest. Once built, everyone took it in turns to get into the nest, do a little dance and lay an egg! They then had to tell everyone what type of egg they had laid, we had everything from dragons and snakes, to chicks and robins!
Mrs Reed managed to lay a crocodile egg following her rendition of the ‘birdy’ song and dance! I wish I’d filmed it!
Mrs Wilson
