Bird Activities for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten

Check out over 25 ideas of bird activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students! Math, literacy, fine motor, science, & more are included to help you fill in your lesson plans. Little learners love learning about things they see every day, and birds are just that. Your students will enjoy exploring these critters that are found in our yards, on our playgrounds, and in the sky. Need the bird resources? Find the Little Learners Science Unit All About Birds and the Bird Math & Literacy Centers by clicking on the links.

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Bird Sensory Table! Birdseed makes the perfect filler for a sensory table for little learners! They can explore what birds eat, like seeds and sunflower seeds. I added in pom poms, pinecones, plastic birds, sticks, and pieces of brown pipe cleaners for worms. I even found some nests from Micheals to add in. Students can use wooden spoons and an egg carton to sort and count different objects in the bin.

**Warning: most birdseed mixes contain nuts, so do NOT use birdseed if you have nut allergies in your classroom.** Dyed rice or chickpeas would work too.

Worm Rescue! Students use tweezers to rescue the worms. It’s super simple to set up, a ton of fun for students, and a great way to strengthen their fine motor muscles. Grab these baskets, plastic worms, and paper shreds to make a fun game where students try to rescue the worms. I placed tape across the top to make getting the worms out of the basket even more challenging. Pick the worms up at any local store that sells fishing supplies, and please make sure to purchase worms that do NOT have hooks in them. Set out some tweezers for added fine motor practice, but if you have younger students, they can just use their fingers to get the worm out.

Bird Playdough Mats! Grab this FREEBIE BELOW for a fun bird theme! Playdough mats are a great tool to encourage students to create with playdough. They will roll, shape, and squeeze the play dough to create bird-themed pictures. Playdough is great for strengthening hand muscles and preparing students for writing.

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Build a Bird Nest! Students will have so much fun building a bird nest with things from nature. This is an excellent swap for a playdough tray and adds in a fun STEM challenge. Students can help you collect items from nature, or you can use beads, pipe cleaners, pom poms, fake leaves, and fake sticks. The Little Learners Science Unit has real-life pictures of different bird nests for the students to recreate.

Bird Craft! Use half a paper plate to create this adorable bird craft! You will also need pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and orange or yellow paper. I added some glue to the paint so students could add feathers to their birds while they were still wet!

Feather Painting! Have so much fun painting with feathers! Students can strengthen their fine motor muscles, hand-eye coordination, and express their creative skills with this simple, open-ended art project perfect for a bird theme!

Feather Cutting Activity! Print some of these feathers and grab some scissors to have a bird-themed cutting activity. For students who need more cutting support, use these loop scissors to assist them. Students will cut the feather out and then cut on the dotted lines inside the feather to create the fringe look. There is also a template that doesn’t include the dotted line.

Bird Books! Check out my post with over 30 titles about birds! The list features fiction and nonfiction books for your little learners. Some of the titles are funny and silly, and some are educational and provide students with lots of information about these winged creatures.

Bird Writing Center! Create an inviting writing center with bird-themed vocabulary cards, stickers, fun writing paper, and various writing tools. Students are drawn to bright colors, so print the cute bird paper on bright colors to make it more inviting. I like to cut up my sticker sheets and place them in a small bucket so they last longer.

Bird Word Building! Students can spell words with beads strung on feathers. They can spell sight words, names, or bird vocabulary words from the Birds Math & Literacy Centers. To make the bead letter nest, cover a tray with crinkled brown paper. Students will be improving their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, vocabulary, and so much more with this fun word-building activity!

Bird Nest Name Craftivity! Practice spelling names with this bird-themed craftivity. Students will cut out the eggs and nest templates. Then, they will tear the brown paper to cover the nest. Tip: have strips of paper pre-torn, so they only have to tear the pieces. Lastly, write the letters of their name on the eggs. This would make a super cute bulletin board too!

Bird Letter Tracing Cards! Little learners will practice forming their letters on these bird letter tracing cards. I would laminate the cards for extra durability, and that allows students to use dry-erase markers on them. Students can form the letters with play dough, beads, birdseed, dry-erase markers, pom poms, and any other small manipulative you have in your room.

*Reminder: birdseed may contain nuts, be aware of any allergies before bringing it into the classroom.

Bird Nest Letter Match! Use a piece of white butcher paper and some markers to create this letter-matching activity. I wrote all the letters of the alphabet and then drew a nest under each one. Students will sort letter manipulatives into each nest. Adapt this activity for your learners’ needs by only sorting the letters they know or are practicing right now; if they aren’t ready for the whole alphabet.

Make a math activity by writing numbers in each nest, and students can count pom poms for eggs to match each number.

Peacock Letters and Sounds! Use this fun letter game to practice letter identification and beginning sounds by building peacocks. Students will draw a green feather from the pile and match it to the corresponding peacock. The green feathers have capital letters, lowercase letters, and pictures. Adapt this to fit your learners’ needs by picking how many and which letters to lay out for them to work on. Sort just a few letters or do the whole alphabet. Younger students can just sort the letters and not the sounds.

Bird Sight Words or Names! Students will use these bird letter cards to spell their sight words or names of friends in the classroom. There is a recording sheet for students to write the words that they build. The resource comes with bird letter cards and sight word cards.

Students could also put the letters in ABC order or just match letter manipulatives to the bird letter cards to make the activity lower level for younger learners.

Birdhouse Rhymes! This rhyming resource comes with birdhouses that feature a picture, and students will find the matching rhyming pictures. Layout the rhyming cards in a tray with birdseed or a cute nest to make the center even more inviting.

Opposites Eggs! Little learners will enjoy matching these opposite egg puzzles. I laid mine in a tray with paper shreds and bird counters to make it more inviting. There is also a worksheet for when students complete the puzzles.

Egg Letter Match! Use plastic Easter eggs to create a fun game for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students! Begin by writing the letters on each egg; I put capital on the top and lowercase on the bottom. Then, I laid out letter manipulatives for students to sort and put into the eggs.

Bird Number Mats! Students will trace the number, count the hatchlings, and then place the corresponding number of objects into the nest. I used white pom poms for eggs for them to count into the nest. Add in tweezers for even more fine motor practice too! You will find number cards for the numbers zero to twenty.

Bird Nest Shapes! This shape resource features nests that are of different shapes, and the students will find the matching bird to place in their nest. Add white shape buttons for “eggs” to make it even more hands-on. There is an accompanying worksheet too! You can also add in small shaped manipulatives for students to sort too.

Feed Me Parrot Math! Feed the parrot worms and seeds to practice counting and using ten frames. There is a simple mat that students just count into, and there is a more difficult mat that has a place for the students to write a number sentence to match the food card. Ex. 4+6=10 If you want students to write the number sentence or equation, use the board with the blank equation, and laminate it. Then students can practice writing the equation too!

Bird Number Formation Cards! Students will practice writing their numbers and counting birds in ten frames. Students can place manipulatives like seeds or play dough in the tens frames too. Laminate your cards so students can use dry-erase markers to trace the numbers.

Feather Measure! Show students how to order feathers by height with a simple hand-drawn worksheet. Students can also use linking cubes to measure the feathers to practice counting and ordering by numbers.

Feather Sort! Create a sorting board for little learners to sort feathers by color. Students could also sort the feathers into bowls or nests by color.

Bird Patterns! Have students explore birds and their gorgeous feather patterns with this matching game. Students will look at the pictures of the feathers and patterns and match them to the correct bird. Then, they can create their own patterned bird on the worksheet.

Bird Science Table! Your little scientists will love exploring all about birds at the science table. I like to put this out the first week of the unit so students can explore and be introduced to the topic before we dive deeper into the study. This science table is covered in resources that give students general information about different kinds of birds. Students can sort the animal figures or animal photo cards: birds or not a bird. They can use the magnifying glass to examine the birds up close to see the different parts of the bird and compare them or measure them (or the bird photo cards) with cubes.

Bird Science Table: Feather Investigation! Use these feather investigation resources during the second week of your bird study to dive deeper into what makes birds unique. Little learners will measure, sort, and learn about different kinds of feathers. They can also examine and compare the feathers using the magnifying glass or measure them with cubes.

Bird Binoculars! Make DIY binoculars with paper towel tubes. Then decorate them before you go outside and look/listen for birds or signs that birds were here. To encourage birds to be in your area, get a bird feeder and place it outside your window or get a clear window birdfeeder so students can observe birds.

Safety reminder: Students should NOT touch birds, real bird feathers (unless there were cleaned), or bird nests because birds carry many diseases. If you have a real bird’s nest, place it in a baggie and tape it closed so students can explore it without touching it. Clean your feathers by washing them in dish soap and warm water. Then, let them air dry before bringing them into your classroom.

Birds are such a fun unit for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students, and with these ideas, you will have so much fun exploring and learning about these critters! Check out my post about my camping dramatic play unit for a whole-class theme!