Children’s Activities on Bluebirds

NABS Get to Know Bluebirds Book for young birders – Download or buy on Amazon

Wonderful, informative booklet with photos, fascinating facts, stories, etc., developed by Myrna Pearman with a grant from the North American Bluebird Society.  You can download it for free as a PDF, and purchase it in color from Amazon.com.  Read more about this book.

Tak-Along Project – bring a child along while monitoring a bluebird trail. Great tips on how to get them interested but not overwhelmed.

Coloring Pages

• Click on picture to open – at the bottom of the page, there will be a “print page ” button. To save files to your computer for printing, right click on link, and then choose “save target.”
• To open the PDF version, you’ll need free Adobe Acrobat Reader

webpage	I love Nature	TX Bluebird Society	from Sialia (NABS)	www.kidzone.ws
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Also:

• Bluebird (NY State Bird)
• Eastern Bluebird – Enchanted Learning with basic information about bluebirds
• 50 Birds free bluebird coloring book

Games

• Bluebird Growing Up Game (download as jpg image you will need to resize for your paper, MSWord document, or PDF file). Put pictures in sequence from egg to adult. A factsheet describes stages (download as MSWord document). [1st or 2nd grade and up]
• Bluebird through My Window song and circle game [preschoolers]
• Cavity Nester Matching Game (download as jpg file you will need to resize for your paper, or a PDF file). Match six birds to their name and nest with eggs. A fact sheet describes nests (download as MS Word document or PDF file) [1st or second grade and up]
• Habitat game (Grades 6-8) – Likemusical chairs, with different colors of carpet squares or chairsto represent habitat where the bluebirds vs. starlings can nestand find food
• The Wrong Nestbox: Read Bluebird Basics Do’s and Don’ts, and then name 10 things that are wrong with the nestbox (download as MS Word document or PDF file) [4th grade and up]
  • Alternate version for younger children: Compare the two nestboxes (one is right, one is wrong). Printer Friendly Version.
• Word Puzzle and Solution (download as a MS Word document) To save files to your computer for printing, right click on link, and then choose “save target.”
  • Junior Version

Arts & Crafts

• Cross stitch bluebirds: Christmas tree ornament – no instructions.
• Face painting
• Flying bluebird mobile made from egg
• Serene bluebird from polystyrene balls – from Kids Craft Weekly
• Handprint (bird)
• How to draw a bluebird (step by step)
• Origami bluebird with photos showing construction – a big hit with kids
• Quilt: bluebird wall hanging/quilt (PDF file)
• Birds made from Leggo blocks

Activities – also see No Child Left Inside

• Build your own nestbox – The NABS style box, slot box, or Gilwood are probably the easiest to make. The TX Bluebird Society box is a fine box. 2″ long 6D hot galvanized nails are less likely to bend. Be sure adults are supervising and helping young ones hammer. Power tools are not a good idea. Remember to make a 1 9/16″ hole (not 1 1/2″) for Mountain Bluebirds.
  • If you are a trail monitor, you can let each child decide if they want to take their box home to monitor it or if they would like the box to become part of your Trail. If they choose for you to install the box, have them sign their name and troop number (or class) and, a couple of times during the breeding season, e-mail their leader or teacher with an update on the success of the box(es). (David Gwin of Texas).
• Make a simple bluebird feeder
• Make your own suet (note: most recipes have peanut butter, so be sure that no one has any peanut allergies!)
• Plant a tree or shrub that produces fruit eaten by bluebirds and other wildlife
• Read a Story: How the Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Color (Native American) or Bird’s Nest Parfait (by Paula Ziebarth)
• Set up a nestbox or trail (National Wildlife Federation)
• Walk someone else’s trail during nesting season. Contact your local bluebird society to see if you can find a volunteer monitor to guide the children. Be sure that children are appropriately dressed, have insect repellant and liquids, and adults to help with crowd control.
• Puzzle or other free online activities (Bluebird Nut)
• Bluebird books for children
• Why petting baby birds is not a good idea (information, Sialis)
• Review the fascinating life of a Cowbird (Sialis)
• Classroom FeederWatch (Cornell – kids do research and submit data to scientists via the internet. Fee includes curriculum)
• Bluebird Claymation video created by 4th and 5th graders (watch)
• Collect bird stamps, including those featuring bluebirds

Rhymes/Songs

• Three Little Bluebirds
  (Place the bird nest puppet on your right hand, puppets hidden inside, before you start this rhyme.)
  Three little bluebirds without any home;
  (Raise three fingers on left hand.)
  Three little trees in a row.
  Come build your nests
  In our branches tall
  (Fly fingers of left hand through the air to “land” in the nest — lift up the three bluebird puppets inside.)
  We’ll rock you to and fro.
  (Fold arms with nest inside and sway gently.)
  Adapted from Ring a Ring O’Roses by the Flint Public Library

• BLUEBIRD THROUGH MY WINDOW (tune: “Skip to my Lou”) Fly little bluebird, through my window
  Fly little bluebird, through my window
  Fly little bluebird, through my window
  Um diddle um dum dey. Hop little bluebird, in my garden
  Hop little bluebird, in my garden
  Hop little bluebird, in my garden
  Um diddle um dum dey.
• Can use as a circle game that encourages preschool children to follow directions. Teach the song first, then introduce the game.
  • • Ask children to join hands and form a circle. 
    • Youngsters hold their hands up high to represent “windows” and the preschool “bluebird” weaves in and out of the windows during the first verse.
    • During the second verse the “bluebird” chooses a child and gently pats him/her on the shoulder several times.
    • Repeat the first verse as both children weave in and out of the windows, with the first child holding on to the second child’s shoulders.
    • Continue until there are no more windows and all the children are holding onto each others shoulders

BLUEBIRD WINTER

In summer, juicy insects crawl
On leaves and through the grass.
I feast on bugs until late fall
Then catch them less and less.
Soon winter comes with snow and ice
And winds all in a flurry.
The bugs are gone, but in their place,
a berry February!
–Mariam Kirby

• Bruce Burdett’s ditty about mealworms can be sung as a rap tune, with “I like it” as the chorus:

The mewo is a tasty worm.
I like it.
It has a glabrous epiderm.
I like it.
I peck it ’til it’s good and dead,
And pulp it up, and smash its head,
Then feed my chicks and go to bed.
I like it.

And another verse suggested by Paula Ziebarth:

A fuzzy caterpillar’s a luscious treat.
I like it.
With hirsute body and tickly feet.
I like it.
When older chicks wish to indulge,
I stuff them ’til their small eyes bulge
And sometimes fuzzies get disgorged.
I like it.

OTHER RESOURCES:

• Bluebirds Inside the Nestbox, by the North Carolina Bluebird Society. From actual nestbox cam footage. Interesting, fun for children (not much explanatory dialog.) May be purchased online directly from The North Carolina Bluebird Society as a VHS tape or a DVD for $13.85, including shipping; quantity discounts are available. 15 minutes.
• Books for children about Bluebirds
• Get to Know Bluebirds:  A guide for young nature lovers, by Myrna Pearman
• BirdSleuth curriculum for homeschoolers by Cornell Lab of Ornithology: books, lesson plans, journal, resource pages, CD-ROM, free participation in Project FeederWatch.
• Photos of children building boxes
• Bluebird Meadow – blog of ideas of bluebird-related things to do with kids
• Coloring pages:  Eastern Bluebird  | Mountain Bluebird | Western Bluebird
• Songs featuring bluebirds | Quotes & Poems about bluebirds
• Click on CHILDREN or EDUCATION categories on right (desktop) or bottom of screen (mobile)