Set up a feeder area

Make or buy bird feeders and bird food, then set up a feeder area in your schoolyard or at home. Check out the Feeding Birds section of the All About Birds pages for lots of information and ideas on getting started: bird feeders, bird seed, making your own feeders, landscaping for birds, birdfeeding challenges, and schoolyard feeding tips.

Teacher tips and ideas:

Holiday for the Birds

Gail and I would like to share our winter project, which we are calling "Holiday for the Birds." On December 12 we will spend the entire day making pine cone feeders, stringing fruits, and baking birdseed cookies as gifts to the birds. We will hang these ornaments at school and take some home for the birds there. we will also coount birds on recycled Christmas cards and determine the most popular bird on holiday cards. We have some bird work puzzles, student-made word searches [editor's note: both can be found in Classroom Birdscope issues, available from the Ambassador's Supply List], and CD ROMs to share about birds. We are looking forward to this fun day. In the spring we plan to repeat this activity to welcome back the birds. We will then focus on migrating birds and warblers. Parents are invited to assist us and visit the feeding site at school.
--Doris Waud, Fyle School, Rochester, NY
This year we strung popcorn and cranberries for a whole day!! Many parents came to help us. Now our FeederWatch area looks so beautiful and we've seen many birds eating the popcorn and cranberries -- grackles, Mourning Doves, Dark-eyed Juncos, American Crows, to name a few.
-- Ms. Conca's third grade class, Church Street School, White Plains, NY

Graphing and Mapping
The students have measured the canopy and ground cover of our research site. It is an interesting place for our bird research to take place. The students have drawn a scale drawing of the site and have measured the heights and diameters of the trees as well. The feeders were drawn on graph paper. We hope to send in some scale drawings of their designs and actual photographs of the students with their feeders. We loved doing this!
-- Elizabeth Henline, Hamersville Elementary, Hamersville, OH

Note: You can see some of these feeder plans and photos on the Making Feeders page.

Feeders and Technology Design
I am doing technology design and building with the oldest kids (7th-8th grades) this year and I thought feeders would be great as they are the children who have worked so hard on our habitat over the last two years!
-- Lovat Watts, Centreville School, Centreville, DE

Biodegradable Feeders
One of the things I'm doing with the class is having them make their own "biodegradable" bird feeders. I've saved orange halves (my husband made juice today), attached yarn to them and am having the kids fill them with chunky peanut butter and black oil sunflower seeds. I hope it will start them thinking about making their own habitats.
-- Ilene Schneider, Marlton, NY (Ambassador)

Note: You can also put the peanut butter-sunflower mixture on bagels.

PROF DEVEL