Got some stale cereal and fruit that’s past its best? Have your kids make these Cheerio and Fruit Bird Feeders. It’s a great craft for strengthening fine-motor skills, and a lovely way to help out your backyard birds when food sources are scarce.
Winter is long and cold and snowy where we are, so it’s often a struggle for birds and squirrels to find food at this time of year.
To help them out, whenever we have stale cereal in the cupboard or fruit that’s gone a bit soft in the fruit bowl, we turn make homemade bird feeders with them.
You can see our orange peel bird feeders here, and a couple of different Cheerio bird feeders here and here.
The hooligans love making these feeders. The crafting itself is fun of course, and the kids feel good doing this small act of kindness for our backyard birds.
Today, we put together quite a buffet for our birds.
Not only did we have stale Cheerios in the cupboard, we had an apple that was going soft and some grapes that were turning brown. We also added some dried fruit to the mix for a real little smorgasbord.
Supplies and Ingredients:
- Wooden skewer
- Raffia (or yarn or twine)
- Cheerios (you could also use stale bread/buns
- Fresh fruit i.e. apple, grapes, orange, berries
- Dried fruit i.e. grapes, dates, raisins, raisins
Making your Feeder:
Chop any large fruit (apples, oranges etc.) into 1 inch chunks. Grapes and berries can be left whole.
Set the fruit and Cheerios on a plate or in a sectioned tray, and give your child a wooden skewer to thread them on.
Note: You may want to snip the very tip of the skewer so it’s not quite so pointy if your children are very young.
Slip in some math!
Have your children thread the food onto the skewer, alternating the cereal and fruit. They could even practice counting and patterning here, making repeating patterns on their skewer.
Leave some space at each end of the skewer, and tie a long length of raffia, string or twine to each end.
Now, take your bird feeder out into the yard and hang it from a branch of a tree or shrub.
Happy feasting, birdies. Hang in there just a little longer. Spring is right around the corner.
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
