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Writer's pictureKeith

Weekly Activities. Book of the week - The Tree




This week's book of the week was The Tree by Neal Layton.


The book is an environmental fable about a home to a family of birds in their nest, squirrels in their drey and rabbits in their burrow. But what happens to the animals when a man and woman decide to cut it down and use it for their dream house? Can the tree be home to both the animals and the humans?


As part of this gentle story, a birds nest is disturbed from the safety of the tree branches by humans with their own agenda and considering the time of year, we thought it would be a great idea to make our own version of bird feeders to help our feathery friends. The children could take their feeders home to hang in gardens, from balconies or perhaps in a local park or woodland.


We started by using a knife to cut a large orange in two. The children then scraped out the innards (which we used for some of our snacks so nothing went to waste). They then went off to find a stick that they could cut in two using secateurs and pushed both parts through the orange half at right angles creating a cross in the centre. To this they tied some wool so it could be hung from the branch of a tree. For the bird seed recipe we used sunflower seeds, mealworms and suet pellets.




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