To help my preschooler learn about birds, we pretended to eat like a bird. This is a fun and easy activity that lets kids learn about birds and help in the kitchen.
We’ve been learning about birds this week. And this morning, we explored what birds eat.
We read through some books, watched a short video, and made ourselves a snack plate with foods that birds like to eat.
This short video clearly explains what birds eat
Because there are so many different types of birds, it was a bit hard for me to find a way to break this topic down into an easy to explain way that my kid would remember.
Luckily, I found this great YouTube video. This short clip teaches kids that by looking at the shape of the beak, you can tell what a bird eats.
As it turns out, my kid was fascinated by the topic. The video did a great job showing how the shape of a beak helps birds eat different types of foods.
Making our picnic to pretend to eat like a bird
After watching the video, we made a small snack to pretend to eat like a bird. We loved our tasty snack platter!
Because there are so many different foods to chose from, you really can’t go wrong. Of course, my kid asked to eat it outside so we could be like birds.
What we used for our pretend eating like a bird picnic
For our pretend to eat like a bird picnic, we chose these foods to use:
- Sunflower seeds
- Pumpkin seeds
- Nutty granola mix
- Apple
- More fruit (dried fruit mix)
- Worms (the gummy type)
Please keep in mind that nuts and seeds can be chocking hazards in young children. Only include nuts and seeds if your kid is old enough and ready for them.
We used honey roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds (like this). While these are not the real seeds that birds would eat, I like that there is a rough coating on them, so it gives it a less slippery texture and makes it easier to bite.
Suggestions for other foods that birds eat
My kid loved the food that we used. But if you don’t have them available, or if your kid is too young for nuts and seeds, here are a few other ideas:
- Fish (canned tuna would be easy)
- Edible bugs (for the brave)
- Juice (like a hummingbird)
- Berries
- Corn
Kids can help prepare the eat like a bird snack
My kid always is happy to do something in the kitchen. Making this bird food snack looks easy, but there’s a lot a preschooler could do to help.
Here are the tasks he did:
- Cut the apple using his crinkle cutter
- Spoon out granola onto the plate
- Pour some seeds out of the pack onto the plate
- Open the pack of dried fruit and dump it onto the plate
- Chose a mix of gummy worm colors and line them up on the plate
Essentially, my preschooler prepared this entire picnic by himself! He was very proud of it. He also set out our picnic mats and and carried it outside to our patio.
We read bird books at our picnic to learn more about birds
As we enjoyed our the bird food picnic, we read some books about birds.
This book is great because it has clear pictures and easily digestible information. It’s also small in size compared to many non-fiction books, so it was not intimidating for a preschooler.
This fun kid activity lets kids learn about birds, but also helps them develop kitchen skills
We really enjoyed doing this fun activity together. It didn’t take long, and it was easy to do with foods we had around the kitchen.
I will admit, it turned out a lot better than I anticipated. While I started this activity thinking it was a good way to help my kid understand what birds eat, it ended up being so good for his kitchen confidence too.
None of the kitchen tasks were particularly difficult, but when he saw that he had put together the whole picnic, I could tell he was really proud of it.
We will be doing this activity again!
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