Our nursery adopted a pair of budgies two years ago. Friends of the father of one of the children had them and, although the wife loved the birds, the husband was driven mad by their twittering! We couldn't see a reason why we shouldn't take them on, but never foresaw all the learning potential and enjoyment that the children and staff would get out of them. They have become the main topic of conversation in the nursery.
The children adored the budgies, a cock and a hen, from the start. We discussed what to call them and drew up a list from which the children voted for their favourites. Frank and Brenda won - named after the couple who gave them to us.
They live in a beautiful big cage and another father made a nesting box for them. Within weeks we were noticing a difference in the budgies' behaviour and, to our surprise, a couple of months after they arrived at the nursery, Brenda laid five eggs. They were tiny, like Cadbury mini eggs. Three of the chicks hatched and it was fascinating to watch the progression from egg to growing up and then flying.
Frank and Brenda must feel very at home at the nursery, because they have gone on to have two more batches of chicks - 11 in total. These have all gone to the homes of different children. One family even named their two budgies after me and the other manager - Elizabeth and Adriana!
Nesting instinct
The nesting box has sides that lift up so that the children can watch when Brenda is nesting and see the chicks. Frank plays the doting father. It is wonderful to watch. He has a manly stance on the perch outside the box and lowers his head as if to say, 'Watch out, it's my woman'.
We researched nesting on the internet with the children and found out that when budgies are laying, they lay eggs every other day. This helped the children's numeracy with concepts of 'every other' and 'alternate'.
We learned that budgies nest for about two-and-a-half to three weeks. Then they start to hatch, and hatch every other day. Unfortunately we have not seen the chicks hatch, but a mother has donated money for a CCTV camera so that we can watch if they lay more eggs.
When the chicks have hatched, Brenda stays with them, so Frank feeds her by regurgitating food. 'Regurgitate' is now a word that the children use a lot because they think it is funny. They thought it was 'yuk!' when we explained what Frank was doing, but it opened up a good conversation on feeding. We can hear the birds twittering and they get very noisy when they are hungry.
It is amazing watching the chicks learn how to fly when they emerge from the nesting box. Frank and Brenda squawk at the chicks to get them off the ground.
In flight
There must be something about our nursery - blue tits have also laid eggs in the nesting box outside our front door. The chicks came out of the nest while some of the children were playing outside, so we were able to watch them, like we did the budgie chicks. We observed them as they started to fly and then fly away. This made one child upset because he thought that our budgies would also fly away, so we looked up in books about how budgies are domestic pets and are kept captive in this country because they would not survive outside.
We learned that budgies are native to Australia, where they are able to live in the wild because it is warm and they can live on the seeds and plants that are found there. The children were interested to find Australia on a map and look at how far away it is.
After the blue tits vacated their nest we retrieved it. We found it fascinating to look at, especially as budgies do not make nests - they push the eggs to the corner of the nesting box and sit on them to keep them warm. This led to us looking up nests and eggs in reference books and comparing budgies and blue tits with other birds.
Children are always watching Frank and Brenda. They have learned about caring for creatures, being responsible for them and how to be quiet and careful not to scare the birds or bang the cage. The older children take it upon themselves to show the younger ones how to behave around the budgies. They display a lot of empathy.
Some of the children have done their own observations of the budgies and have drawn pictures of them and their eggs. They have also compiled books on the different stages of the chicks' development and kept diaries on the birds - the size of the eggs and the chicks, how they hatched. They are good at making comparisons.
All creatures
Observing the budgies has led to many extension activities and opportunities for further learning. One such area has been the children's personal and social education, with discussions about how the birds make babies - that it takes a male and a female (hen and cock) and that the hen lays the eggs and that they should not be disturbed. We discussed the cock's role in caring for the hen while she is nesting too.
Some of the children became very interested in wings and flying and how other animals live and move. They have studied the different birds that inhabit the nursery garden and looked at how they take off and land and how they flap their wings and glide. The nursery isn't far from Stansted Airport, so we get a lot of aeroplanes flying overhead. This has led to comparisons between the bird's flying and the planes - how much higher the planes go, how their wings do not move like the birds and questions about why the planes don't hit the birds.
The interest in the budgies has led to children talking about their own pets and how they care for them at home. We helped the children's role play by setting up a pet shop complete with toy dogs, animal carriers and card cages. Some of the children have also played at vet surgeries. Throughout all the learning we have put a lot of emphasis on how important it is to look after animals, both domestic ones and in the wild.
Elizabeth Hunnaball spoke to Annette Rawstrone