Yard Debris Bird Nests!

This activity was so easy and came up so organically. I wanted to do some raking as we had lots of little willow branches and such that had accumulated on our lawn and I wanted to get a little exercise in. As I was raking, I noticed I started to form a little circle around myself. I thought it looked like a nest and pointed it out to Lila. She then asked for some eggs, I suggested pine cones (could be black walnuts or rocks). She totally rolled with it and her imagination play was amazing. I made a larger pile of debris and suggested it was a bird school. She took her eggs/baby birds and proceeded to teach them how to fly. It opened up a lot of great conversation around bird development from egg to full grown. And occupied my 3.5 year old long enough for me to make some serious progress!

– Elana Maragni