Unplugged Food
Monday, April 14, 2008
This week's Unplugged Project theme was food. I had thought about cooking and/or planting with Paige - I have a really cute kid's tomato planting kit for her - but life has been a little stressful with all of this house hunting, and I actually wasn't sure at one point if I'd have a chance to do the project this week. So we fit in a simple project, and wouldn't you know it, simple is often best. Inspired by this post we made Cheerios bird feeders.
This is a really simple project, basically all you do is string Cheerios onto a pipe cleaner. Bend the top of the pipe cleaner to make a hook, and then go hang it on a tree. I asked Paige if she'd like to make something for the birds and she was very excited - Paige has always loved birds. She really seemed to enjoy putting the Cheerios on the pipe cleaner, and had more success with it than I thought she would. Of course a pipe cleaner is a little easier for a "threading" type project than string is, because it is more rigid, and she just had to place a Cheerio over the pipe cleaner. It was also a good project for hand-eye coordination. Paige also enjoyed picking out what color pipe cleaner she should use - and assigning a color for me too.
We made them at night and then took them out to hang up the next morning. Paige quickly put them on the tree in our front yard, turned and looked at me and said, "where are the birds?" I guess they should just know that there's a yummy Cheerio breakfast waiting - and that they might be able to lower their cholesterol in six weeks!
The additional benefit to this project was nibbling on the Cheerios as you go along.
Here are our feeders, hung of course, at toddler height.
April 14, 2008 at 8:30 PM
Those came out great! I wish I'd had some pipe cleaner to use instead of zip ties! For the ice cream cones, you just break off a little bit of the bottom off the cone and push whatever you're using to hang them with through the hole. Very easy!
April 14, 2008 at 8:44 PM
How very nice and easy! Just what I like... Plus you sneak in a lacing activity!
April 14, 2008 at 9:16 PM
Tasty bird treats. I love it!
April 14, 2008 at 10:22 PM
What a great idea! My girls would love this. I think we will make these tomorrow!
April 14, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Also to add:
You've been tagged! Come on over to my place for the details!
April 15, 2008 at 1:16 AM
We string Cheerios for our cockatiels all the time, but for some reason I never would have thought of doing it for wild birds. Great idea!!
April 15, 2008 at 3:35 AM
They are great. We love feeding the birds here too.
April 15, 2008 at 8:47 AM
What a great idea! These look like such a great project for the littler kiddos, and my son is really into feeding the birds right now. A great combination - and so easy, there's no room for perfectionism!!
April 15, 2008 at 3:28 PM
Very cute! As you can see from my bird studies, we are a bird loving family....so this will go quite nice for my toddler to try! Thanks!!!
April 15, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Hi Michie, I actually just commented on your Sat. post so you'll find me there as well. It's great to meet you. AAC and AT are my passions but I don't get to use them very often. I have a few non-verbal kiddos in my life skills classes. I love working with that population!
April 15, 2008 at 5:42 PM
I love that. So easy but great. My kind of craft.
April 15, 2008 at 10:29 PM
Michie, I just answered your post on the storyline online in my comments. Also, have you seen this blog: http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/ fabulous! (it just takes forever to load)
April 25, 2008 at 8:28 PM
CC -
I went and looked at that blog you recommended. Would you believe that I worked with the girl whose blog it is at my last job? Special Ed can be such a small world...