Terri Thompson

Today I’d like to welcome another blogging friend of mine, Jen from Kitchen Counter Chronicles, who is sharing a fun after school activity with you today. Thanks Jen for stopping by today!

I am so excited to be sharing our fun after school activity at Creative Family Fun today. I have two daughters aged 7 and 9 years old. When my girls come home from school they are looking for things to do that are creative and a little bit challenging. We try and spend as much time outdoors as possible, especially now that the spring weather has arrived. So we love incorporating nature into our play. The girls were inspired to start learning about different types of birds when I brought home the massive book, Landsdowne’s Birds of the Forest by JF Landsdowne. Landsdowne’s artwork is incredible and the books pulled my girls right in. They each chose a bird to research and the creativity went from there.

My youngest daughter picked the red throated hummingbird as her focus. She started by writing out 3 facts about the hummingbird. My daughter loves writing out facts and information.

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Next, my daughter traced the picture in the book. We clipped a piece of tracing paper to the page and then my daughter traced the picture with a pencil. After tracing, she then coloured in the picture with pencil crayons.

I cut out a construction paper “frame” for the picture and used a glue stick to adhere it to the tracing paper. We decided to add a piece of pink paper to the back of the tracing paper, to allow the sunlight to filter through the picture. Without the paper behind the picture, all the colour was washed out of the drawing.

We then proudly placed the hummingbird suncatcher on our dining room window. As the sun shines in, the birds seem to glow. It really is quite lovely.

My eldest daughter studied a different bird, the belted kingfisher. When she was done her tracing she decided that she didn’t want to turn hers into a sun catcher. So, her picture is hanging on our art bulletin board…perfect. I am amazed how this one book and a love of nature, inspired learning and such beauty. Looking through the book has lead to much discussion about many other birds. We have even signed up to attend a bird guided tour in a local park. Who knows maybe we’ll see a hummingbird or a kingfisher. Are your children interested in birds? What birds are native to the area where you live?

Thank you Jen for such a fun post!

In my “previous life” I was a mental health professional…in my current life I’m a stay-at-home mom with 2 beautifully adventurous kids. I share everything that lands on our kitchen counter over on my blog, Kitchen Counter Chronicles. Swing by and learn how we are greening their lives; what we are crafting; what we are cooking and what we are reading. While you will often find the girls and I inside the kitchen, you will also find us out getting our hands dirty, exploring and learning outdoors. I also tweet at @kcchronicles and can be found on Facebook and Pinterest.