How to Make Homemade Hummingbird Feeders at School

Make hummingbird feeders as a class to teach about birds. Hummingbirds eat nectar, similar to sugar water. Have students draw pictures of hummingbirds before or after making the feeders. By setting up feeders, students can observe what hummingbirds look like, how they act and watch them eat. Students can fill the feeders at school or take them home. Ask students and staff to save empty water bottles for this project and wash them out before using.

Things You'll Need

• Empty water bottles
• Plastic lids bigger than water bottle caps
• Bowl
• Sugar
• Hammer
• Nails
• Glue
• Fake flowers
• Napkins
• Hot glue gun
• Measuring cups
• Funnel

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Instructions

• 1

  Before beginning the activity with students, make a large hole in the lid of the water bottles. Set a nail on top of the cap and gently tap it with a hammer. Do this several times to make one big hole. The hole should take up most the middle of the lid.

• 2

  Pull a napkin halfway through the water bottle cap. Set the cap, bottom down, inside the larger cap. The bottom of the small cap shouldn't touch the plastic on the larger lid. (The napkin creates the gap.)

• 3

  Use a hot glue gun to glue the smaller cap in the middle of the larger cap by slowly making a pile of hot glue. If you go too quickly, the glue will pool into the larger cap. After the glue is dried, gently pull out the napkin.

• 4

  Hand each student a completed lid, bottle, glue and fake flowers. Students can decorate the bottles however they want.

• 5

  As a class, make a mixture of three parts water to one part sugar. This mixture is similar to nectar, which hummingbirds feed on.

• 6

  After the glue from decorating is dry, each student should pour the water mixture into the bottle by using a funnel.

• 7

  Screw the lids on tight. Set the feeders out on a rail with the lid down for the birds to eat from.