Taking Care of the Animals in Winter

The kids noticed during the reading Lois Ehlert's book Snowballs that there were birds eating things off of the snowman so the next day I read them Stranger in the Woods.  This book is about children who build a snowman and decorate it with food to feed the animals. 

It is a beautiful book with the most beautiful photographs of animals who are debating on checking out this "stranger in the woods."  You will enjoy it just as much as the kids for its beauty! 
This caused the kids to start asking questions about what animals do for food in the winter if we don't feed them.  They started discussing that some animals don't need to eat because they hibernate.  One mentioned that some "go west" when it starts snowing.  They started wondering what whales, snakes, turtles and other animals do during the winter.  I think I know what we will be inquiring about next!  
After reading this book they wanted to feed the animals around here.  The next day, I read another book called The Night Tree about a family that decorates an evergreen in the middle of the woods with food for the animals to eat.  

This gave us the idea to use the giant evergreen in front of the school to put out our feeders. Each child took a piece of bread that we had left out to dry.  They spread peanut butter on their bread and dipped it in bird seeds.  They pushed a pipe cleaner through the bread to hang them up.

We walked outside and hung our feeders on the giant evergreen, dropped some seeds on the ground and added a corn cob that one student brought in during our fall inquiry for animals that could not climb or fly.  

Here is the whole gang!  They were happy to help out the animals.  We will check out our tree and see if the animals were happy with our food!