As the temperature starts to warm up, spring comes along at RisingOaks Early Learning | John Sweeney in the toddler room. This month the toddlers have been seeing different types of bugs, many types of birds and animals running around. On a sunny day outside, the toddlers went outdoors to the playground, as the children were walking around they noticed a big nest was hanging in the wooden shelter. The children all gathered and wanted to see what was in the nest. The educators took a peek inside the nest and saw one blue egg, when we brought the children inside we showed the children picture books about birds and read about what happens when birds create their nest and have eggs. The next few days we checked the nest and noticed there was another egg in the nest and the mother bird was laying on top of the eggs, she was keeping her eggs safe until they hatched. As the next day arrives we go back to the playground for outdoor play and we checked the nest and found two more eggs, now a total of four eggs. As each day went on the children continue to look at the nest and waited for the baby birds to hatch out of the eggs.
While the toddlers were waiting to see if the eggs have hatched, through daily observations we extended on their learning by showing the children a video about the time lapse of a bird making a nest to the birds hatching, they noticed that the bird eggs hatch within two weeks, and they learned that once the babies hatch, the mother bird and daddy bird find food like berries and worms to feed their babies and they stay in the nest until they are ready to fly. Since the weather is nice outside the toddlers went on many community walks around the school, around the park, as we walked around they noticed different types of birds flying around, the children talked about the different colour birds and different features each bird has. As we walked around the children observed small nests in the tall trees that birds have made for their eggs.
As a couple of weeks came around the children notice that the mother bird is still laying on her eggs but the educators noticed that the mother bird lost one egg. As we observe in the next few days the children would say, “where’s the mommy bird”, the educators has not seen the mommy bird in a while, the educators took down the nest and sadly the eggs didn’t make it. The educators showed the nest to the children what the nest is made out of and how the birds created it from finding materials outside. At gathering time we talked about what might have happened to the eggs and why the mommy bird left the nest. It is great to see that children have interest in nature and have a willingness to learn through documenting each day and showing interest learning about birds.
