• About Me
    • About Me
    • Contact Me
    • PR & Advertising
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Disclosure
  • Frugal Living
    • Giveaways
    • Living a Frugal Life
    • Freebies
    • Homeschool Printables
    • Recycling
  • Inspiration
    • Inspiration & Quotes
    • Charity

Castle View Academy

Curiosity + Creativity = Learning

  • Home
  • Learning
    • Home Education
    • Homeschool Art
    • Field Trips
    • Homeschool Geography
    • Health
    • Homeschool History
    • Homeschool Language Arts
      • Books
        • Book Activities
    • Life Skills
    • Homeschool Math
    • Music
    • Homeschool Science
    • Sports
  • Creativity
    • Book Activities
    • Craft
    • Culture
      • Africa
      • Asian Cultures
      • Europe
      • North America
      • South America
      • Oceania
    • Nature
    • Outdoors
    • Playtime
  • Holidays & Seasons
    • Holidays
      • Valentine’s Day
      • St. Patrick’s Day
      • Easter
      • Mother’s Day
      • Father’s Day
      • Canada Day
      • Thanksgiving
      • Halloween
      • Christmas
      • New Year
    • Seasons
      • Spring
      • Summer
      • Autumn
      • Winter
  • Recipes
    • Beverages
    • Breakfast Recipes
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Snacks
    • Fun Food
    • Fun Recipes for Play
  • Family
    • Family Life
    • Parenting
  • Reviews
Home » Nature » Bird Watching From The Kitchen Window

Bird Watching From The Kitchen Window

September 12, 2012 by Crystal McClean

Birdwatching from the kitchen window with kids at Castle View Academy

Bird watching from the comfort of your own home is a rewarding experience for the young and not-as-young both.  Read on for our activities and our new free printables just for you!

Birdwatching from the kitchen window with kids at Castle View Academy

There is always a new bird to look for or something new to learn.  It can also become quite addictive.   We’ve been doing this project since last spring/summer.  Our good friend, Susan, from one of the local Moms and Tots groups shared her activity with us and it’s been a great hit!

Bird identification cards for kids

She’s taken pictures of some common British Garden Birds and turned them into cards with the name of each bird above.  The RSPB has a wealth of information for bird watching, and we often frequent this site. We’ve glued the cards onto some construction paper and laminated them with sticky-backed plastic so that they will wear well as they are being used on a daily basis.  We use some fun-tak to put them up onto our kitchen door to perch.

Identifying birds is a great way for kids to learn about nature in their own backyard

Each morning, and throughout the day, we look out our kitchen window and spend a moment bird watching to see which birds we can spot in the trees behind, or next door.  Our next-door neighbour is deeply into bird watching and filming birds around the area.  In fact, in a play-on-words unknown to Tristan, he calls our neighbour Mr. Cameraman.

So often we see many birds next door that we don’t see in our own garden.  But since trimming the trees and putting out an improved bird feeder we are now seeing more in our garden as well!  We’ve made a few bird feeders over the past year as well; you’ll see these in upcoming posts over the year.  You can learn about our scarecrow birdfeeder here.

Kids identifying garden birds is a fun way to start a lifelong hobby and appreciation of nature

As we sight a bird, we take down the corresponding card from the kitchen door and move it to the cupboard door next to the window.  Now that the younger children have grown used to the cards and know how to be gentle with them we have since moved the cards down lower so that they can all transfer the cards between areas when they sight one out the window.

READ MORE:   The Bears on Hemlock Mountain E-Guide Review

Birds we've seen in our garden today a

As we are out walking each day we keep our eyes open for other birds that may be seen.  Over the year we have added a few more birds to our collection and Tristan has become good at knowing them by name now, too.

As a way to further this activity, we are thinking of adding some bird facts to the back of each card so we can begin to learn a little more about our feathered friends.  One thing we have learned is that they enjoy these birdseed cookies.

Bird watching with kids is a great way to learn about nature

Try the World’s Best Homeschool Planner for FREE!

We may also start to count the sightings of the birds in our own garden to see how they change over the seasons as some of them migrate.  This will add to the children’s math skills.  Bird watching is a relaxing yet exciting hobby that goes wherever you are, and best of all it’s free!

Speaking of FREE, I’ve created a free garden birds 3-part card set for you, with the help of Maurice Baker.  I’d highly recommend you visit his site for great wildlife photos, videos, and audio recordings!

Garden Birds Cover

To access your copy, simply sign up for our emails and you’ll find a link and password at the bottom of the emails that will give you access to this free printable, as well as all the past subscriber freebies that we’ve done.

Take a look at another way we watch for birds and wildlife on our Walk on the Wildside blog post. Fly over to our page on nature activities for kids for more great ways to get kids excited about nature.

FREE-Printables-Round-UP

Filed Under: Freebies, Homeschool Printables, Homeschool Science, Nature, Outdoors, Seasons Tagged With: Biology, Birds, Gardening, Indoors, Kindergarten, Parents, Preschool, Primary, Toddlers

About Crystal McClean

I am a Mom, Wife, Home Educator, and Virtual Assistant. We love to have fun together while learning and exploring our environment.

« FROG LIFE CYCLE #4 – FREEDOM
SAY “CHEESE” FUN FOOD SNACK »

Comments

  1. Carolyn Wilhelm says

    September 17, 2012 at 11:07 pm

    Wonderful! A lifelong hobby for your children, too. Carolyn

  2. Jackie Higgins says

    September 22, 2012 at 6:18 pm

    Great idea. I’m doing this too. It seems helpful to get kids to slow down and look outside! It will be a good reminder for me as well.

  3. Crystal McClean says

    August 23, 2015 at 9:56 pm

    I’ve never seen a cardinal…maybe one day!

    The children both enjoy bird-spotting, and even after 3 years they still have the pictures up in the kitchen to use. There’s always something new to see – we need to add to our list.

Trackbacks

  1. 40 Ways to Welcome Spring Birds - Child Led Life says:
    March 2, 2015 at 12:31 pm

    […] Bird Watching from the Kitchen Window – Castle View Academy […]

 
Free Language Arts Lessons
Try the World’s Best Homeschool Planner for FREE!

Popular Posts

Evan-Moor flashcards and worbooks
TOTS100 - UK Parent Blogs
TOTS100
”Top

Terms of Use

Please use our ideas in your home or school. If you wish to share a post, you may share one photo with a link to the original post; however, please do not share any photos of children, adults, or animals without prior written permission which may be obtained via an email to info@CastleViewAcademy.com

Please do not copy or duplicate a post’s instructions or recipe without written permission.

All content on this site is copyrighted and belongs to Castle View Academy/Crystal McClean 2011-2020.

· Copyright © 2015 · Castle View Academy · Site Design by: Fantastique Designs ·