Nest Building

Aim of the Activity

To understand how natural resources are used to meet the needs of living things through investigating how to build a birds nest.

Target Grade Range

Preschool - Year 4

Curriculum Alignment

Science, Arts

Description of the Activity

• Once you have collected your materials find a space inside or outside to start construction.

• Use your imagination and develop your own design and begin construction OR follow the below procedure.

• Start with your flexible plant stems. Line a thick bunch of them up together and and bend them forming an overlapping circle

• Use another flexible plant stem or some string to tie them together

• Get a smaller handful of stems and repeat the above process

• Place the large loop downward and edge this smaller loop on top and inside the larger loop. you may also need to tie these 2 loops together depending on how well the stems fit together and sturdy you want it to be

• Keep the nest upside down and continue to build the bottom of the nest by pushing and wedging smaller sticks and plant materials across and through the smaller loop

• Turn the nest over and placed some of the softer materials such as the grasses on the inside of the nest

• Continue to decorate your Nest with the beautiful things that you found outside. you could even use flowers as sun birds used colour to attract a mate

Questions to talk about with your child

• Do all birds build a nest up in a tree? why/whynot

• How are bird nests different from each other and how are they the same?

• How does a bird build a nest? Does the shape of a bird and type of feet make a difference?

• What birds do you know of that nest around the suburb?

• Do you think more different types of birds nest around the suburb that we don't see? why/whynot

Links for further learning

https://www.activewild.com/australian-birds-list/

https://birdlife.org.au/all-about-birds/australias-birds/find-a-bird/

https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/wedge-tailed-eagles

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/

https://nestwatch.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8RUT6JHYJs