Birds and Poetry

Bluebird sits on fence post with worm in mouth.

The Sandburg family enjoyed birdwatching and took care of many birdhouses and feeders throughout their property. Their daughter Margaret Sandburg was especially fond of birds and even created a blue bird trail with many bird houses mounted along the pasture fences. Carl Sandburg shared his affection for bluebirds through a poem.

Bluebird, What Do You Feed On?

Bluebird, what do you feed on?
It is true you gobble up worms, you
swallow bugs,
And your bill picks up corn, seed,
berries.
This is only part of the answer.
Your feathers have captured a piece of
smooth sky.
Your wings are burnished with
lake-morning blue.
It is not a worm blue nor a bug
blue nor the blue
Of corn or berry you shine with.
Bluebird, we come to you for facts,
for valuable
Information, for secret reports.
Bluebird, tell us, what do you
feed on?

 

Write your own bird poem!
Supplies needed: Paper and something to write with.

Instructions: Look out your window or step into your backyard. Spend 15 minutes looking for birds. When you find an interesting one, write down a few words to describe it. What color is it? How large is it? Is it flying or standing still? Describe it's behavior. Once you have 5-6 words written down, you can start a poem!

Prompt 1: Need some help to get started? Find a rhyming word for each of the words you have. Example: you wrote "high" to describe where the bird was flying. A rhyming word could be "sky". So that line of poetry could be: The bird flew high against the bright blue sky.

Your word	Rhyming word
.
.
.
.
.
.

Prompt 2: Want to try another style? Write an acrostic poem. Using the word "BIRD" write a line of poetry that starts with each letter in the word. You can use your words from the observation activity to help.

B _____________________________

I ______________________________

R _____________________________

D _____________________________

 

Bluebird coloring page

Bluebird Coloring Page
Download the file to print and color this Connemara Farm bluebird coloring page.

 

Animal Search Worksheet

Go on an Animal Search!
Open the file and point out or print and circle all the animals you find in the picture. Hint: there are 17 animals to find!