I love this project. It’s simple. Kids love it. It only requires a few supplies. It provides opportunities for learning and sensory input. And who doesn’t have an empty toilet paper roll?!
In fact, I love this project so much that we make these pretty much every year. The kids enjoy all aspects of it. 
One thing I like about this project is how it engages the senses. The peanut butter and the bird seed both give olfactory (smell) sensory input. Rolling it in the bird seed and hanging it on a tree are excellent tactile input. And both making the bird feeder and later observing the birds who use it are visual.
If you have a child who is very sensory avoidant when it comes to touching textures or when it comes to smells, they may prefer to watch someone else make the bird feeder and then enjoy observing it in action once it is complete. 
How to make a toilet paper roll bird feeder:
Supplies needed:
- empty toilet paper roll
- peanut butter
- bird seed
- knife or spoon for spreading the peanut butter
- plate or paper plate
- optional: string
- Put a layer of bird seed onto a plate.
- Spread peanut butter on the outside of a toilet paper roll using a knife or spoon.
- Roll the toilet paper roll in the bird seed. Because of the peanut butter, the seeds will stick.
- Loop the string through the toilet paper roll and hang it on a tree or slip the toilet paper roll directly onto a tree branch.
- Observe the birds who come to feed.
How to make a toilet paper roll bird feeder without peanut butter:
With many schools being peanut and/or nut free, you may need to make this without peanut butter. You can use Sunbutter (a sunflower butter) in place of the peanut butter.
Expanding this activity:
Use a journal or notebook to write down observations of the birds, their sounds, their habits, their colour, their features or to draw pictures of the birds observed.
Using a book from the library or the internet, try to identify the different bird species that are visiting.
Make the bird feeder using a different type of bird seed and observe whether other varieties of birds visit.
Discussion Points:
What types of birds do you think will visit the feeder?
What types of birds are attracted to the seeds we are using?
This is one of the many activities included in The Sensory Science Book Volume 1. It contains ideas for the themes of Colour, The Senses, and Nature. 
Other Sensory Science Activities you may enjoy:
Whether you’re planning a large holiday party or a small family gathering, these games will bring laughter and fun. (You can also check out our 
This is a great game to play in a large group. Everyone can play at the same time or you can play head to head.
The player starts with the other end of the ribbon in their mouth. They then have one minute to attempt to swing the ribbon and land the pompom onto their nose and stick there. No hands are allowed to be used in this challenge.
Blow the cards gently to move them across the table. The goal is to have one card hang over the edge of the table without falling off. Each player has one minute and ten tries to reach the objective.
Have the player stand on the chair and drop candy canes, attempting to have them hang on the garland. You can have another player on the opposite chair playing at the same time.
For young children, use the wider craft sticks. To make it more challenging for adults, use regular sized popsicle sticks. You can also vary the size of the jingle bells to create more difficulty.
This game is quite challenging, so for younger kids, start with less pompoms or cotton balls in their bowl.
The goal of the game is to move 5 candy canes out of the bowl. The time to beat is one minute.
The player must pick up all the candy using only the spaghetti noodle in their mouth. They must stack all six candies onto their noodle in under one minute.
This game works with groups as a relay or with two players racing against each other. Each of the players places a white pompom (snowball) on a plastic spoon and races to place it in a bucket across the room. The player or team to fill the bucket with the most “snowballs” in one minute wins.
See how many gifts players can open in one minute while wearing oven mitts. This is quite a funny one to watch!
The team that completely uses their toilet paper first wins. It’s fun to see what method the teams come up with to do this quickly.
Adult supervision should always be used when making slime.
Instructions:
Store the glow in the dark slime in an airtight container or plastic bag. If stored properly, this slime will keep for a long time.
If you want to give it out as party favours, you can use baby food jars as containers wrapped with purple ribbon around the top.
Slime makes a great gift. You can either give the homemade slime in a container topped with a bow or festive cookie cutter on ribbon or create a kit with slime ingredients and recipes.
