simple corn and chestnut feeders for birds and squirrels

You may have seen my post last week about feeding the birds.  We made simple Orange Cup Bird Feeders with a few pantry ingredients to help our feathered friends out now that winter has set in.

On Wednesday, even though the hooligans weren’t here, I made a few more treats for the birds and the squirrels.  These were even more simple than the ones we made last week.

You may remember that last fall we spent quite a few days playing with corn kernels and chestnuts.  We had sensory bins going on, the children dissected corn cobs and sunflowers and we made an awesome corn and chestnut run with a plastic pool hose.

When we were finished with all of our fall play, I dumped the kernels and the chestnuts into a bucket and brought it inside for the winter so we could use them for various crafts and activities through out the year.

They came in handy Wednesday when I decided to make more feeders.

Making the orange cup feeders:

My hubby has been making fresh squeezed orange juice every morning, so I have an abundance of orange “cups” right now, and I simply filled several of them with corn and chestnuts and set them outside on the bench by our pond.

Making the heart shaped feeder:

For the second feeder, I filled the bottom of a heart shaped cake pan with corn and chestnuts and then packed the pan full of snow.  It wasn’t exactly packing snow, so I brought it inside for a few minutes to soften it a bit, and I patted it all firmly into the pan.

Then, out at the bench, I turned it upside-down and out popped the cutest little corn cake!

So sweet and easy, and hopefully our birds and squirrels will enjoy these in the days to come.