Oliver's Restaurant...for birds...

A few weeks ago, Jack's mum Kiran told me about a story she had recently read to her children and she thought it might be of interest to my students. It is a lovely story about a little boy, Oliver, who decided to make a restaurant for birds in his garden. He asked all the members of his family what should be on his menu and he followed through to complete his idea, finally opening his restaurant.

As we read and discussed this story, our students began to realise that in our gardens we already provide a vast range of food for birds.

They suggested however that they would like to use the area in the Bush Tucker Garden to develop their Croydon West Primary School Restaurant for Birds. We discussed the issue of providing food for animals in the wild and what problems it may create.
Last week the students made the special bird pudding which Oliver's aunty suggested. There was no real recipe but we added some birdseed, melted lard and honey as in the story.

Next week we will set up our restaurant with a menu, signs, birdseed on our bird feeder, special bird pudding, water in our birdbath, insects (plenty around!), flowering plants (already there!) and some spiky plants for the birds' protection (our Native Finger Lime should do the trick).

The strings are set into the puddings so that we can hang them...that's the theory at this stage..... :)

The students made a menu design for the restaurant including their ideas about what a bird might find tasty in our garden. Thankyou Kiran for this great little story. It has provided much discussion for our students!

This is where the students have decided to have our  bird restaurant. It also has a wonderful flowering gum which attracts Rainbow Lorikeets at different times of the year....fascinating to watch and hear!

Has anybody any more great ideas for attracting birds into our garden??