BIRDS AT HOME IN THE GARDEN
HORTICULTURAL THERAPY SESSION PLAN
DECORATING BIRD HOUSES WITH NATURAL MATERIALS by Sarah Sierdazki
PURPOSE: Birds add multi-sensory interest to the garden—color, movement, life, and song. Make a home for birds in the garden by decorating wooden bird houses with natural materials.
MATERIALS:
Wooden birdhouses (see note below)
Dried driftwood pieces
Twigs cut into various lengths
Bark strips
Pine cones
Dried moss and lichen
Cross section circle pieces of wood branches
Glue for outdoor use with wood (Franklin’s Titebond III cross-linked PVA glue or Gorilla Glue polyurethane glue, for example)
Small stones
INSTRUCTIONS:
Each participant can be given a bird house to create, or a small group can work on one together for an outdoor project where all will see it in the garden (example: at a school or skilled nursing facility.) Plan a design first, and then begin gluing on the natural materials to decorate the bird house. Make sure all materials are thoroughly glued down. Hang the bird house on the side of a tree out of the sun and out of the wind. Make sure it is at least 6 feet off the ground. Place it where it can be seen from a window so individuals or groups of participants can view the birds that make a home there. In the fall, open one side of the birdhouse by unscrewing it, and clean out the nesting materials to make a clean home for the next bird inhabitants in the spring.
DISCUSSION: While working on the bird houses, discuss how to make birds at home in the garden with native plants for food and nesting materials. Talk about bird watching, and provide a bird guide and small binoculars if possible for future bird watching. Transition the discussion if desired, to what we each need to do to make our our home environment safe and comfortable, and what we need to do to feel at home there.
NATURE WALK ADAPTATION:
If possible and desired, take a nature walk with your participants several weeks prior to your bird house decorating session. Collect driftwood on the beach to be dried in the sun. Collect strips of bark at the base of trees (sycamore and birch trees are good sources.) Note: Do not pull strips of bark off the trees—only use what is already on the ground. Collect pine cones of various sizes and dry them. Lichen can be collected and dried as well. Collect small river stones for decoration as well.
NOTE ON BIRD HOUSES:
We found several sources for one board bird houses online. (See attached handout.) Since neither of us has wood working tools, we needed to find someone else to make our bird houses for us. Our local joint vocational school (grades 8—12) had a carpentry class that was featured in the newspaper for making a bird house that was used in a raffle at our home and garden show. I was able to contact the instructor, and asked if the class ever did projects for customers. The instructor checked with the class, and they agreed to make 30 bird houses. We bought thirty 6 foot long cedar fence stakes, 6” wide, and 5/8” thick and galvanized screws and delivered them to the class. All the instructor asked for was a pizza party for his class! A huge win-win! We used cedar rather than pine (despite the extra cost) because it will last longer outdoors. It is best to leave the wood unpainted and unstained. We made a few using a throughly watered down paint wash just to give them a bit of color—but made sure the paint wasn’t thick enough to seal the wood. This would’ve made the wood less able to release heat when the birds are nesting.
SKILLS USED/DEVELOPED WHEN DECORATING BIRD HOUSES:
COGNITIVE SKILLS:
Following multi-step instructions
Sequencing
Attention span and concentration
Follows safety precautions
Problem-solving
PHYSICAL SKILLS:
Eye hand coordination
Crossing midline
Grasp
Motor skills
Muscle strength, endurance
SOCIAL SKILLS:
Communication skills
Cooperation, working together
Taking turns
Sharing
Emotional self-control, impulse control
Frustration tolerance
Responsibility