Week Four: Woodpeckers and Beaks

While all birds have beaks, not all beaks are the same.  This week we learned about different beaks and how they are amazingly good at getting the food the bird needs. 

As on each week, we started with reviewing the parts of the bird, focusing on beaks. 

We followed with our bird song.  This week I added a version about a woodpecker:

This is the way we hammer a tree, hammer a tree, hammer a tree.  This is the way we hammer a tree, just like a woodpecker!

To learn more about beaks, we skimmed through "Beaks" by Sneed B. Collard III. 

Stabbing "fish" with her
Great Blue Heron Beak

For activities this week, we did three different stations that our friends rotated through. 

1:  Beak activity:  In this activity children simulate different beaks by using a hammer and chisle, tweezers, mesh strainer, nutcaker and a spear-like chopstick. 

2.  Woodpecker craft:  We had this free printable paper woodpecker toy cut out and ready for our friends to assemble. 

3.  Bird Seed buffet:  Different birds eat different things.  At our bird seed buffet, each friend took a scoop of each of our options including black oil sunflower seeds, peanuts in the shell and dried cranberries to make a bird feed mix to take home. 

We did this rhyme to come back to the circle: 

“Fly with the Birds”

Fly high, fly low

Fly fast, fly slow

Let’s dive for a drink

Let’s rest on a hill

Fly high, fly low

Fly fast, fly slow

Up, up and away!

Next we listened to a Five Little Woodpeckers song by Pam Donkin with the help of our tree trunk and woodpeckers. 

We closed with The Busy Tree by Jennifer Ward and beautifully illustrated by Lisa Falkenstern.  This is a wonderful book that easily shows how much each tree means to the world. 

We didn't have time for this rhyme, but it is a cute one: 

Tap Tap Tap
Tap, tap, tap goes the woodpecker (tap wrist)
As he pecks a hole in a tree. (make hole with pointer finger and thumb)
He is making a house with a window
To peep at you and me. (hold hole in front of eye)

Next week:  Turkeys!

Anna at Future Librarian Super Hero is hosting this week's Flannel Friday Round-Up. Visit the Flannel Friday blog for more information on our group.