Heart-Shaped Bird Feeders
With the Great Backyard Bird Count on this weekend and Valentines day just past, we made bird feeders in the shape of hearts to attracted our feathered friends to the school.
The recipe we used is as follows:
- 4 cups wild bird seed
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 tbsp corn syrup.
I found this recipe made enough for about 6 hearts about 1 inch deep, 5 inches wide and 6 inches long. The students made their hearts in groups of 4 and they made two hearts each so I increased the recipe by 50%. Each student was in charge of an ingredient, with two on bird seed and I did the corn syrup because pouring it into and out of the measuring spoon was tricky due to its stickiness. The students used different types of measuring cups to measure their ingredients: one student used a two-cup measuring cup (filling it once to the 2 cup then to the 1c mark) for bird seed, while the other used a 1 cup dry measuring cup (3 times). The student doing the water used a 1 cup wet measuring cup and filled it to 3/4 cup mark (because we increased the recipe). Finally the student on flour used a 1 cup and a 1/8 cup dry measuring cups (1/8 cup is also 2 table spoons). Then the student reached into the bowl and mixed with their hands.
Once washed up, the students spooned the mixture into their heart shaped cookie cutters (on wax paper) and packed it down tight. Before removing the cookie cutter, I stuck a pencil in one of the heart bumps to make the hole for the ribbon later.
I wish I could show their facial expressions while mixing, but due to confidentiality I have pixelated their faces.
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The feeders were left to dry overnight. The next day I threaded a red ribbon through them and each student hung one around the school and took the other one home. Here they are!
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Here is the lesson plan i wrote up for this activity:
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