Forest Friday/ Dalkey School Project N.S.

Session 9

24th March

Fourth and third class.

Nests

Fourth Class

This was our final session with third and fourth class for this year. We were so lucky to have lovely sunny weather to share our Forest experience with the parents. The children have been planning for this day deciding what games, wild tea, and things that they have been noticing over the winter.

Hazel

Our first stop to show the parents was at the hazel tree. We showed them the photograph we took on the 10th February and looked at how it had changed in 6 weeks.

The children chose games, Tip the Can and Eagle Eye to teach their parents. Some parents said that they hadn’t played games like this since they were children and really enjoyed taking time out.

Gorse flower tea.

The day before, in school, the children looked at a prepared slide show about birds nests. Each species make different nests and even then each nest is individual and is make with the natural materials available to the bird. Here you see some slides the children discussed, a rook’s nest, a drawing of a wren’s nest by the artist Susan Ogilvy, and a woven piece by the sculptor Joe Hogan inspired by nests.

We had a story during break to introduce our activity.

How Do Birds Know How to Build Nests?

All the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them how to build nests. For the magpie is the cleverest bird of all at building nests. So she put all the birds round her and began to show them how to do it. First of all she took some mud and made a sort of round cake with it.

“Oh, that’s how it’s done,” said the thrush; and away it flew, and so that’s how thrushes build

their nests.

Then the magpie took some twigs and arranged them round in the mud.

“Now I know all about it,” says the blackbird, and off he flew; and that’s how the blackbirds make their nests to this very day.

Then the magpie put another layer of mud over the twigs.

“Oh that’s quite obvious,” said the wise owl, and away it flew; and owls have never made better nests since.

After this the magpie took some twigs and twined them round the outside.

“The very thing!” said the sparrow, and off he went; so sparrows make rather slovenly nests to this day.

Well, then Magpie took some feathers and stuff and lined the nest very comfortably with it.

“That suits me,” cried the starling, and off it flew; and very comfortable nests have starlings.

So it went on, every bird taking away some knowledge of how to build nests,but, none of

them waited to the end.

And that is why different birds build their nests differently.

Focus – Nest building

Materials and Tools

· Clay

· Secateurs

· Tweezers

With your parent or a partner create a basic nest that will hold 3-4 pine cone “Eggs” or make eggs with clay.

Starting

· Gather natural materials that you think would be good for nest building. Try using a tweezers to see what it would be like with a beak.

· Will the nest structure require framework? You already have the skills to weaving circle.

· Explore these materials for a while to consider some of the difficulties of the task ahead. Guide them to think about such questions as the following:

– How do you keep the nest from falling apart? How would birds do it? (Mud and saliva, spider webs, weaving grasses, etc.)

– What kinds of materials would work best for the main nest? For example, what length and thickness of twigs and/or grasses might be best? Should items be flexible or sturdy?

– How do you keep the inner shape of the nest relatively round?

– Should you add a lining for the eggs and baby birds? What might birds use? (Soft plant fibers, dog fur, downy feathers, leaves, etc.)

– Is there anything unique about the nest that you’d like to build?

– Would you add a roof of sorts or create more of a cavity style?

Start with a basic plan.

What size twigs seem to best, or can they vary? What materials are flexible enough to weave? At what point should you switch to softer lining materials? How can you keep the open bowl shape for the nest?

Having made nests with two hands, four fingers and two thumbs everyone had great admiration for the skills birds have for nest making. Nobody felt that their nests were anywhere nearly as skilled as bird’s nests.

Third Class

Noticing the signs of spring, bird song, bees, flowers, squirrels and buds.