We are having unusually warm weather over here in the western half of the states. It has been great for my kiddos to enjoy crunching the fall leaves without freezing off their toes at the same time!
We did this craft with Princess' Joy School group and it was a hit. All the kids loved getting their hands messy with the glue goop. Now every morning, Princess wants to check out the window to see if any birds have eaten any of the seeds off her bird feeder.
And its really quite simple....
Step 1: Make the glue goop...
This is a mixture of one part vegetable shortening and one part oatmeal. We have a little boy with a peanut allergy in our play group, so we couldn't do the traditional peanut butter on our bird feeders. Come to find out, this mixture is even easier to use, and just as loved by the birds! I mixed our goop with a large popsicle stick; also used to schmear it on our pine cones.
I found the perfect pine cones in the yard of a house down the street from us. I went over there, knocked on their door, asked for their pine cones, and the homeowner was elated to get rid of some pine cones! So that part was easy. :)
I ended up baking our pine cones at 200° for about half hour... this was because when I was tying the first string around the first pine cone, a spider crawled out! I freaked out and decided I needed to 'kill' our pine cones. All for a better cause, right?
Step 2: After you've cooked your pine cones, tie a string or piece of yard around the top of your pine cone. I used left over yarn from making my AWESOME Rapunzel wig for my daughter. (had to boast, sorry)
Step 3: Schmear that goop on your pine cone, then roll in bird seed.
Step 4: Hang on a tree branch and wait to hear the chirp of starving little birds!
On a more serious note- Although we are having great weather over here in the west, there have been many families affected by Hurricane Sandy. Our hearts and prayers go out to them!
