As I venture down the road of homeschool preschool with Allie, I've discovered that many day to day activities can be learning opportunities. Wednesday morning we watched as the birds pecked at the
bread we sprinkled on the back patio for them. Among the normal group of birds we spotted an interesting looking bird with a tail that stood straight up. I quickly reached for the bird identification book. This sent Allie searching for her own science reader book about birds and so we sat down and began our first science lesson. The science reader book includes pictures of many different birds but Allie was most intrigued by the Peacock and was full of questions. "Why is its tail so big?" "Are those eyes on its feathers?" "It won't bite me right?" Because her book is tailored to young children with very basic general facts about birds, I turned to my trusty friend google for more in depth
information about Peacocks. I was surprised at how much I did not know about this beautiful bird.
Did you know?
- Peacock is the term for males. Peahen is the term for females. Together they are called Peafowl. And the young are Peachicks.
- Peacocks have been domesticated in many countries however they can be very testy and tend to have trouble getting along with other domestic birds.
- Peahens lay 3-5 eggs.
- Groups of peafowl are called parties.
- Peafowl eat insects, plants and small creatures.
- The blue peacock lives in India and Sri Lanka. The green peacock can be found in Java and Myanmar (Burma). The Congo peacock, a lesser known species, calls the African rain forests home.
- The beak of a full grown peacock is on average 1 inch long.
- A peacock's train can reach 60 inches in length.
- The fan of feathers is often thought to be the bird's tail however it is made up of 150 large feathers that grow from its lower back. The real tail is short and hidden underneath the train.
- A major television network uses the Peacock as its trademark. Can you name the network? HERE to get started.
Want to identify some of the birds visiting your back porch? I found a really neat Backyard Bird Identifier on the National Geographic website. Click
THE CRAFT
What you need:
- Clean hands
- Three or more colors of paint
- One paintbrush for each color of paint
- A large piece of paper for the background
- A smaller piece of paper for the body (or paint it on)
- A googly eye (or paint the eye on)
Carefully paint the hand in the design you want for the feathers. You will need to repaint the hand after a couple of prints so let your child know ahead of time to keep their hand open with fingers
out straight through the entire process. For younger children that can't resist squeezing their hand, try making baby peachicks that require only one or two repaints making 1-6 hand prints.
Make several hand prints in the shape of the feather fan. Start at the bottom making prints close together and work your way out.
Cut the body out of coordinating colored paper (bowling pin shape with a beak) and glue it on. Add the googly eye and perhaps some feet and you're done!
