Look at what our birding has inspired now.
Our little bird puppets now have a Garden scene to play in... with pop up worms!
If you follow our blog you will have seen the creativity that has flowed from our initial birdwatching activity the other week; puppets, nests, & now this simple garden play scene created by my 5yr old. To create the garden Minnie folded a sheet of A4 card in half & decorated one half as sky, & the other as grass.
She wanted to add some worms for the birds to eat so designed & cut several out of paper.
Having seen the real birds pulling up the worms from the grass in our garden she was keen for the paper worms to 'pop up' too. We made a few small cuts in the green side of the paper & Minnie threaded the worms through, folding them at the bottom to secure.
Then our cheeky bird was ready for breakfast!
There was a beautiful narrative accompanying this little play scenario & a sweet little voice given to the bird. Once the worms had been eaten they were returned & threaded through the grass ready to play with again.
We've since played maths games with this little scene & set the birds a few addition & subtraction challenges. For example; if birdy collects 4 worms & then 4 more, how many does she have? If she collects 6 worms but drops 4 on the way home, how many will she have left for her tea? Minnie has had fun setting her own challenges too, a great way to encourage her imagination & numeracy skills.
This simple paper play scene has been a wonderful way for Minnie to express her interest in birds, & I've loved watching her creativity & imagination flourish as she's done so.