Nest Nature Hunt | Still Playing School

Nest Nature Hunt

We combined science and math by taking the kids on an outdoors nature hunt to find birds' nests! We loved being outside for this part of our homeschooling day.

Add math and science learning together by taking kids on a nature hunt to find and record birds' nests!

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We had a class about songbirds for homeschoolers at a museum today. It was perfect timing to come home and see how many birds' nests we could find nearby. 



Our daughter headed out with a clipboard (which always makes things more official and fun), our recording sheet (which I'll share below), a Do a Dot stamp marker, and her keen eyes! Binoculars will be a fun addition for our next trip out.



Spring is a great time to look for nests because many birds are mating, nesting, and laying eggs. Some of the trees are still in bud making it clearer to find the large nests up in the trees high above us. 


We were surprised to find more nests down low in shrubs as well as tucked in around our house like one under the bottom of our deck! We didn't find any active nests or eggs, though. Doesn't this nest below look so pretty with the red leaves in that tree? I bet that momma bird is positively comfortable looking out at this beautiful scenery every day!


We even found a few birds on our nature hunt. Can you see the dove hiding in our neighbor's flowers? Older (and more patient) birdwatchers might be able to identify which species of birds are using the nests they find.


Our kids used our Nests Nature Hung Ten Frame Recording Sheet which made it easy for our daughter to quickly total how many nests we had found. This will certainly be an activity we revisit later this week as we walk different parts of our neighborhood to look for more nests. 



More Outdoor Learning Ideas for Elementary:

Map Skills for Kids: Backyard Treasure Hunt from Life Over C’s

How to Make an Outdoor Mud Kitchen from Parenting Chaos

Outside Arrays for Multiplication Practice from Line Upon Line Learning

Sidewalk Chalk Outdoor Math Game from Look! We’re Learning!

Gardening For Math Time from Preschool Powol Packets

Second Grade Math with Rocks from Sugar Aunts

Tree Unit Study from Schooling a Monkey



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