Birds Unit 1

There are many in our family who absolutely LOVE birds, especially backyard birds. The Birds Unit 1 was the perfect way to incorporate a type of animal the kids love with learning. After all, there is so much to learn about birds!

These activities are designed for children in Montessori preschool classes. Activities for a variety of subjects are included in this post, which makes it the perfect unit study.

We hope you enjoy these bird themed activities as much as we did!

Montessori-inspired Bird Activities for Preschoolers

Bird Sight Words

When choosing his activity the kids will match up bird pictures with words to separate picture and word cards. They may also choose to practice writing sight words printed on the cards, utilizing their white boards.

Source:  I found the cute pictures & sight words at Home School Creations.  They were part of a fabulous bird packet.

Bird Themed First Letter Sounds

The kids will place bird seed on the correct first letter of each bird themed word. Picture cards from the sight word activity can be used as a control if needed.

Source:  The printable for this activity also came with the bird packet at Home School Creations.

Follow the Directions

I love this activity because it incorporates grammar and prewriting skills all in one, without being so threatening.

The kids follow the directions for each set of pictures. If they need the directions read to them they may ask for help.

Source:  This page was also part of the bird packet at Home School Creations

Bird Maze

I've found mazes to be really great ways to help the kiddos with their fine motor skills. 

Bulldozer LOVES them, which was a huge surprise to me at first. I'm not complaining though as mazes are a great way to practice pre-writing skills.

Source: I found the printable for this activity in the Home School Creations Bird Packet.

Bird Match Up

Making comparisons is a great first step to math concepts. When selecting this activity the kids will match up birds in the cup with birds on the chart. Depending on their skill level and desire to continue, will depend on how many bird strips they actually complete.

Source:  I found this activity at Montessori Print Shop.

One More/One Less

I love how this activity teaches addition and subtraction concepts in a different way. The kids had so much fun with it.

Bulldozer shocked me with how much he enjoyed this activity and how well he did with it. The kid always amazes me!

Source:  These games were part of the Home School Creations Bird Packet.

More, Less or Equal

Using greater than/less than signs was a new concept for the kids this week.  Dinomite and Princess completed this activity and did quite well with it.

The kids cut out pieces located at the bottom of the page and glued them in their proper places above. I love that math and cutting skills were involved in this activity.

Source:  This printable is part of the Home School Creation Bird Packet.

How Many Birds?

The kids counted leaves on the branch and placed a marker on correct number below. We used sunflower seeds as tokens.

Source: Part of the Home School Creation Bird Packet.

Birds & Continents Sorting Activity

Dinomite LOVED this activity.  Princess and Bulldozer even got into it.  I love it because there are so many options for different levels of learning.

The kids matched up continent with labels to separate continent and label cards. They matched up continents with labels to bird cards.  At times the kids even practiced writing names of birds and continents.

Sources: Cards can be found at Walk Beside Me.

Bird Sensory Bin

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a bird sensory bin.  Hopefully next time around I'll have more to add, but for now this worked great and the kids loved it!

Contents:

• Moss
• Plastic bird eggs
• Nest
• Chicks
• Bird Figures
• Bird Seed
• Feathers

Source:  I put this sensory bin together myself. I think I love putting sensory bins together as much as the kids love playing with them!

Bird Beak Identification

This activity was for Dinomite.  As passionate animals as he is, it's always a challenge to find a subject he knows nothing about.  Beaks just happened to be that subject. 

When I stumbled across this activity I knew it was perfect, and it was!  He loved it!  I thought it was fascinating too.  Not only did he learn about several different kinds of birds, also their descriptions.

Dinomite matched up bird pictures with bird beak names and descriptions.  I wrote numbers on the back of the cards so I'd know when a match was correct.

Source:  I found these cards for FREE at Montessori Print Shop!

Parts of a Bird

Dinomite did this once during the week, but Bulldozer did this activity three times during the week.  He was determined to put it together by himself with all of the labels.  He really had such a good week!

Each kiddo placeed the bird parts in the correct place, along with labels.

Sources:  I found the bird puzzle at Montessori N' Such for free.  I made my own bird part labels.

Transferring Feathers

All of the kids really struggled with this activity.  It was extremely difficult for Bulldozer and Princess to open and close the clothespin using only one hand properly.  There was definitely some frustration from Princess.

We'll pull this activity out again in six months to see if their finger and hand muscles have strengthened at all.

Source:  I found this activity at My Montessori Journey.

Transferring Water with Dropper

This was the absolute favorite activity of the week!  I loved it because it helped the kids with their fine motor skills, perparing them for writing.

Source: I found this activity at My Montessori Journey.

And there you have it! Our week's worth of bird activities!

For more bird themed activities, printables and resources, click on the posts below.