Science · Kindergarten to Grade 3–4
A bird feeder
A bird feeder your child made, hanging level, and a week of birds counted.
Your child turns a milk carton into a feeder: a window, a perch, seed, a string, hung from a branch. At 3–4 they tally the birds that come for a week.
- Kindergarten to Grade 3–4
- 30 min
- Kitchen things
- On the screen
Free to sign up.
Is it a good fit?
- Ready if Your child can pour from a cup and tie a loop with a little help.
- Too much today? The K level: you cut and fit the perch; your child paints, fills and hangs it.
- Too easy? The 3–4 level: your child cuts the window and keeps a week's tally.
What your child practises
- Following steps
- Checking it is level
- Keeping a tally
“It hangs straight, so the seed stays in.”
If your child says something like this, in their own words, the idea has landed. Finishing the rounds means they took part; this is the learning.
Your part
- Rinse a milk carton and buy a small bag of birdseed
- Cut the window at K and 1–2, and make the perch holes at every grade
- Two sittings: the paint dries in between
What you need
From home
- A big milk or juice carton with a pointed top, a litre or more, rinsed and dry
- Kitchen scissors (a grown-up's)
- A stick for the perch: a pencil or a twig
- String, as long as your arm
- Acrylic paint and a brush, or poster paint with a squeeze of washing-up liquid stirred in so it sticks
From a local store
- Birdseed, and a spoon (small parts)
The steps
Kindergarten
Draw a window three fingers wide on one side of the carton, its bottom edge two fingers up from the bottom. (A grown-up does this step)
Draw a window three fingers wide on one side of the carton, its bottom edge two fingers up from the bottom. (A grown-up does this step)The other 5 steps, each with its painting, are in the Family portal.
It must pass: It hangs level, with seed in the window.
Grade 1–2
- Draw a window three fingers wide on one side of the carton, its bottom edge two fingers up from the bottom.
The other 5 steps, each with its painting, are in the Family portal.
It must pass: It hangs level, with seed in the window.
Grade 3–4
- Draw a window three fingers wide on one side of the carton, its bottom edge two fingers up from the bottom.
The other 5 steps, each with its painting, are in the Family portal.
It must pass: It hangs level, and you tally the birds that come for a week.
Safety
The cutting is yours at K and 1–2, and the two holes for the perch are yours at every grade: make them with the scissors' point, away from your child's hand. At 3–4 your child cuts the window once you have made a start. Check the birdseed bag for peanuts if anyone at home has a nut allergy, and wash hands after pouring it. Loose seed is small enough for a toddler to swallow, so pour it with the toddler elsewhere. Hang the feeder where a cat cannot jump to it.
Where the facts come from
More like this
The full design
What it is
A clean milk carton with a square window cut in one side, a stick pushed through from front to back under the window as a perch, seed poured in, and the whole thing hung from a branch on a loop of string. The screen gathers the things, shows one step at a time as a painting of that step, and asks at the end. The feeder on the branch, and the birds that come to it, are the make.
How it goes
One step fills the screen: the painted plate of that step, the words under it, and two buttons. Done this step moves on. Too hard, skip it also moves on, and the finish says how many were skipped without dressing it up. At the end, Show asks what is true (it hangs level, a bird came), and What I learned asks the band's question. At 3 to 4 that is what the tally showed, and "none came yet" is a real answer.
The Pet
Asks at each step: "Step back and look. Is it level?" Notices the step done: "It hangs level. Now we wait." Remembers across the two sittings: the make comes back at the step it stopped on, so the paint dries between them. It never promises a bird.
By band
K: you draw and cut the window and push the perch through; your child paints the carton, pours the seed and hangs it level. 1 to 2: your child draws the window and fits the perch once you have made the holes. 3 to 4: your child cuts the window once you have started it, and the must grows: it hangs level, and they tally every bird that lands, for two minutes a day for a week.
What it grows
The early grades' engineering standards ask a child to make something that solves a small real problem and check it works; a feeder that tips spills its seed, so level is the check. A week of looking for the same two minutes is a fair count, because only the day changes.
Done, and what counts as evidence
Done = the steps done or honestly skipped, and one line chosen at the end. The evidence is the feeder hanging level, and at 3 to 4 the week's tally: a count kept the same way each day, which is how a record of anything begins.
What's personal
The colours, the change your child would make and the tally are stored as their answer, not as a mark. Nothing about your home, your garden or the birds you see is stored. A material you do not have is named once, a substitute is offered, and the make carries on.