As I have two young kids myself, how can I not have some kestrel fun stuff for kids to do? If you come up with some fun stuff yourselves, why don't you email photos of your project, and I will put them on this page!
Simple Kestrel mobile
There is a design of a kestrel mobile/model further down on this page, but it quite complicated and will take time to build, with possible supervision from an adult. However, the following design was obtained from the ENFO teachers web site off the internet, which is a simple cut out that you can fold and then hang up as a mobile. It also has the option to add a mouse! Of course, you can cut out what ever food item you feel your kestrel is catching and add it to the mobile.
Drawing kestrels
Drawing kestrels can be fun too. Take a look at a bird book to see what kinds of kestrels you get and look at their different colours. You can see from the different ones in Kestrel Species on this site that there are all brown ones, brown ones with grey heads and tails, and all grey ones. Each one looks a little bit different.
My daughter, Sarah, has been drawing me kestrel pictures over the years, take a look at them below by clicking on the small picture. She is 5 years old now. Maybe you could draw a picture for this web site too?
Email me your picture so I can add it to our art gallery of kestrels.
If you don't want to draw your own, why not print out this picture and colour it in? (picture from the ENFO teachers web site)
Making a kestrel flag
Design by Jenny and Sam Rogers
Click on the picture to see a larger version
My nephew, Sam Rogers, formed an outdoors club at his school which he called The Kestrels. Here is a picture of him and the flag that he created. You can make a flag too with a dowel pole, some drawing pins, black poster paint and an old sheet. Look in the Picture Gallery to find a suitable picture to copy for your logo.
Building a kestrel model
Design by John Newton
Here are some directions in building a kestrel model. This is a great thing to build to hang up in your room, I have one in mine!
Things you will need:
Instructions
Draw the outline of a kestrel on a large piece of card by looking at the pictures below. Draw the both wings and top of the body as one part section, the top and sides of the body and tail as
another, and the two feet. The wing span should be roughly 60cm tip to tip. You can download my templates for the wing,
body and feet. Print it out on letter size or A4, and scale it to fill the whole page. Cut out the wings, body and tail and feet. Fold the body to make
it three dimensional and fold the edges of the tail to give it a 3D effect. You can either paint the model at this stage or at the end. Then, make the holes in the body sides and feet for the
kebab skewers (which will be the legs). Place the wire along the middle of the wing span and glue. Place the body in the middle of the wingspan, lining up the top of the head and beak on each
part. Glue in place. Put the feet on the skewers and put the skewers through the holes in the body. Glue the top of the skewers to the roof of the body. You can also glue the skewers around the
body holes and glue the feet in place. If your model is to be hanging, cut the skewers off below the feet. Else, you can leave the long skewers in place and this can then be used to prop up the
perched model.
Play around with the design of the model, small for Seychelles Kestrel, big for Fox Kestrel, and you can build a whole kestrel mobile. You can also paint a grey kestrel, brown kestrel and typical grey and brown kestrel.
Pictures of the model
Views of the model from the upper and lower sides.
The side of the model is painted according to the colour of the kestrel species. This is a Rock Kestrel.
This shows details of how the head was painted.
You can also paint the top and underside of the wing according to the wing patterns of your kestrel. Note the wire to strengthen the wing.
The wire can also be used to give the wing a reastic bend. Add some spots of glue along the wire to attach the wing.
The tail should also be painted. Fold down the sides of the tails to add extra depth to the model.
Lastly, the legs go through a hole in the side of the body with the top glued to the roof of the body. The feet are then slipped up the legs to the appropriate place and the sticks can be cut
off or left intact, depending on how you want to mount the model.
Kids are for ever having Peter Pan parties, Fairy parties, Pirate parties, etc. How about a kestrel party? The kids can all wear kestrel masks (can be made out of a paper plate - see my picture in the Contacts in the top right of this page) and games that you can play include Catching the Mouse, Caching the Snake and Making a Nest. The birthday cake can be the model described above perched on a mound of chocolate brownies.
Catching the Mouse
Buy a whole lot of marshmellow mice and hide them in the garden. The children must then run out and find them and eat them.
Caching the Snake
One child (kestrel) hides (caches) a long piece of liquorice (a snake). Another child (kestrel) must then find the snake and the group will shout out warm if the kestrel is getting closer to
the caching spot or cold if they kestrel is moving away from the caching spot.
Making a Nest
All the children are given some hollow chocolate eggs. They have to then find a spot to make a nest, put their eggs in a nest and pretend to incubate the eggs. On the signal from an adult,
their eggs hatch and they are allowed to eat the eggs shells.
TO CHRIST OUR LORD
I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle!5 And the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: sh‚er pl¢d makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash godl-vermilion.
Written: 1877
First published: 1918
