Robin in the Rain!

Photo Credit: Bird Count on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Photo Credit: Sparrow on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Photo Credit: Robin on Flickr, Creative Commons.

Children love to record the number of robins they see. Each day we tally the number and add the count to our Bird Count Graph. At the end of the month, will we have seen more robins or sparrows?

Little Robin Redbreast sat upon a tree,
Up went Pussy Cat and down went he;
Down came Pussy Cat, away Robin ran,
Said little Robin Redbreast,
"Catch me if you can."

Little Robin Redbreast jumped upon a wall,
Pussy Cat jumped after him,
and got a little fall.

Little Robin sang and sang;
and what did Pussy say?

Pussy Cat said, "Mew, mew, mew,"
and Robin flew away.

Photo Credit: Red Red Robin
on Flickr, Creative Commons.

This bulletin board, depicting robins as autumn changes to winter, uses all natural and recycled materials. It is the culmination of several days of art projects and the beginning of an interactive literacy center.

To create a Robin Themed Bulletin Board:
1. Lay a roll of brown paper on the floor. Invite the children to add snowflakes by dipping unused pencil erasers into white paint. If you have access to brown paper grocery bags you could recycle them for the background paper.

2. Create an Art Center at the easel with combinations of colors that will mix to create autumn colors. Invite the children to mix, for example, red and yellow to create orange. Ask the children to use the paint to cover White Card Stock with the colors they have mixed. Rather than uniform colors, you are looking for a more natural blending of the colors.This paper will be used to create leaves in the next Art Center.

3. At the Autumn Leaf Center the children trace around leaf-shaped cookie cutters and cut them out. These leaves are then posted on the bottom of the Robin in the Snow Bulletin Board. Alternatively you could teach the children how to use a Die Cutter to cut out the leaves with a Maple Leaf Die.

4. Papier Mache Trees can be made from brown paper grocery bags. Make a mixture of flour and water and place the mixture into a shallow pan and place this mixture with strips of brown paper in the Sensory Table. A used shower curtain placed under the sensory table will help to contain any mess. Provide painting smocks to protect the children's clothing. Lay the sticks on a nearby table to dry.

5. Provide several coloring pages of robins for the children to color and cut out to be places in the branches of the trees.

6. Bits of fiber fill can be used for the snow at the bottom of the bulletin board.

Photo Credit: Baby Robins
WPClipart

Another fun activity to teach children with a Robin in the Rain theme would be alliteration. Alliteration is when the consonants in the beginning syllables are the same in most of the words in a line. the title, Robin in the Rain is a perfect example of alliteration.

How could you add to the phrase Robin in the Rain to add more alliteration?

The red Robin in the Rain ran to the restaurant.

The rosy cheeked robin roasted rhubarb in the rain!

According to Poddys, the photographer, the European Robin is like a fat sparrow, rather than the American Robin who is more like a Blackbird/Starling.

Includes Robin in the Rain



Come write about your experiences with robins on Wizzley, a fun and easy place to express your opinion: