Bird Themed Counting Activity

This bird-themed counting activity for toddlers is so easy to set up. With just a few supplies we learned about different types of birds, counting, and number recognition. This activity can also be changed up in so many ways to meet your child where they are at.

What does this activity teach?

• Number recognition
• Counting
• Different types of birds
• Sensory play
• Color recognition
• Size sorting
• Fine motor skills
• Hand-eye corrdination

Since moving to North Carolina from Arizona we have been having so much fun seeing all of the wildlife. There is not a ton of wildlife (mainly just ducks, fish, and turtles) in the Phoenix suburbs so we are excited to see anything. We have a group of cardinals that frequent our trees and we have been spending so much time watching them. We even made some birdseed ornaments for them so we could keep them longer in the yard. I am in love with the females they are the pretties light brown and red.

So since we have been having fun bird-watching I thought I would create a bird-themed counting activity. My son does great with number recognition but tends to get bored with counting past 5. In the truest toddler fashion, he says to me “you tell me” when I ask him to count something so I’ve been slowly trying to work in more counting.

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Supplies you need for the bird-themed counting activity

• Birds- I used a mix of Safari LTD backyard birds and barn animals. I also used some printed pictures of birds because I ran out of figurines.
• Pom Poms- I used pom-poms but you can use anything to represent eggs. Some candy eggs around Easter could be super fun.
• Nest Number cards- I found these free cards at Living Montessori Now. Deb has a full blog post of nest activities along with a ton of free printables. I highly reccomend checking her out.
• Tape-Basically a way to secure the number to the birds. I used a combination of tape and dot stickers. The dot stickers worked best on the birds that had larger stands so I could put the number on the bottom. For the rest, I taped the numbers to the backs of the birds.
• Birdseed- This is just a fun bonus. You could use rice, beans, or grass from outside.

Putting It Together

Putting this activity together is super simple. First I filled a bin with some birdseed and added some colored pom-poms to represent bird eggs. I then taped numbers 1-10 onto the birds. You can do whatever numbers you’d like. I first used dot circles but they didn’t stick to the backs of the birds so I secured them with tape. Then I placed the birds scattered in the bin as well. Lastly, I set the numbered nests next to the bin. I decided to not put them in number order just to make it a little bit more difficult.

Activity Idea

For this bird-themed counting activity, my idea was pretty basic. First, match the birds to the corresponding nest. Then give each bird the number of eggs that corresponds to their nest number. I’ve listed some other ways you can do this activity below depending on where your child is at.

Other ways to use this bird-themed counting activity

• This obviously doesn’t have to be birds. You can use the idea for all kinds of things. For example, sharks and fish or flowers and bees.
• You can use whatever you want to count. Feeding the birds worms is also a super cute idea or scoops of bird seed.
• This activity is super easy to turn into an addition and subtraction activity. For example “this bird came over and took 3 eggs away from this bird. How many eggs does this bird have left. Or how many eggs does this bird have now”. Deb from Living Montessori Now even has addition/subtraction and less than/greater than nests.
• Instead of counting the eggs you can just make this a number recognition activity.
• Instead of counting with the colored pom-poms, you can sort them by color or size.
• Stickers can also be placed on each nest with the corresponding number to create a one-to-one correspondence. This is a great way for them to visually see the number of eggs to give.
• When the counting portion of the activity is over the birdseed and birds are a fun sensory play activity.
• You can add tongs or other ways to pick up the pom-poms and transfer them to the nests. This promotes fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Plus it’s just a fun added challenge.
• Naming the birds as you play is another added bonus

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If you’re looking for more fun activities for your toddler or preschooler you can check out all my other posts here.