Casper The Owl & Friends

We were lucky enough to be invited to another childminders house this morning where she had arranged a special visit from the local charity Casper the Owl & Friends. While we were waiting for the owls the children had the opportunity to stretch their legs and engage in some owl colouring activities. 

Once underway children ranging from 1 to 4 were fascinated by the talk about the 3 owls present, Gandalf, Indie and Albus. The children learnt about the owls habitat and how their body is adapted for the climates within which they reside. The children were then able to stroke the owls, feelings their feathers and examining their beaks! The older children were able to put on the glove and hold the owls themselves, something that they were very proud to describe to their parents. 

The highlight of the day for the children was a completely unplanned flight around the adjacent valley by the 'naughty' snowy owl, Albus! Luckily Albus returned when he had had enough! This had the children giggling for the rest of the day. 

At home to provide a more relaxed end to an exciting morning we engaged in some owl poetry, reading the owl and the pussycat together!

Garden Bird Watch Week

This week is the RSPB garden Bird Watch Week so we adopted a bit of a winter bird theme. We started off by making some bird feeders to attract the birds to the garden. 

 The children used their fine motor skills to place peanut butter around pine cones with spatulas. They then spread and sprinkled bird seed over the cones to hang in the garden. However, rather than attracting birds we did tend to attract the squirrels!

We then visited the bird hyde at Saltram house where the children looked at the numerous birds with their binoculars. Although we spotted numerous geese and ducks we also saw some garden birds including a lovely Robin (pictured above). 

Finally the children looked at some bird spotting sheets and coloured in some pictures of a variety of birds with the older children creating their own bird pictures.