June 17, 2009 | 10 Comments

Beautiful Bird Craft

I did these birds a few months ago with my Sunday School class who are 6-9 years old. What made me decide to make them again was that my son’s favorite song from his Music Together class is all about birds, and we made these as a thank you for his teacher on the last day. This was originally going to be posted as a Naptime Creation – which is why the steps sometime involve my son sometimes they don’t, he asked to make his after all mine were done.

Gather your materials. You will need some fun scrap booking card stock, some white paper, markers, some yellow paper, double stick tape ( not pictured) and scissors.
Start by making a template for your bird. I did a few versions before I settled on this. I cut it out and used it to trace the others.
Trace out a bunch of birds. Add eyes.
For your wee ones have them color the bird before cutting it out.
Cut out
Cut out some beaks, I used yellow paper that I folded so it was the same on each side.
Using double stick tape attach the beaks to the birds.
Make a slit in the birds back.
Hand your child some plain paper and have them draw on it.
Fan fold it. I was surprised that this was hard for my Sunday schoolers, I so often work with such young kids that I overestimate school age kids abilities. Help your child fan fold it , it needs to be a tight fold.
Thread it through and bend in half.
Tweet Tweet you are all done !

Books!

“Birds” by Kevin Henkes , illustrated by Laura Dronzek is stunning. I love this author but this book is absolutely about the pictures. The cover is beautiful but there are pages that I just wanted to look at the way I look at paintings at a museum. The book is perfect for toddlers and young preschooler, it’s non fiction , simple and has a great flow. The colors are so vibrant I would bet that infants would dig it too! Awesome awesome awesome!

“Bird Talk” by Ann Jonas was enjoyable but I didn’t get it at first. I thought that the book was what the author imagined the birds would be saying while observing humans daily lives. In actuality what the birds are saying are the “memory phrases” that bird watchers use to remember the bird calls. The author has matched these up with scenes where they fit. My son laughed at the Common Night Hawk who’s saying was “Pork and Beans” and kept repeating that after we read the book. There is a full guide in the back of the book of all the birds included.
“A Poet’s Bird Garden” by Laura Nyman Montenegro is an enjoyable book about a little bird who escaped his cage and the poets and little girl who try and try to catch him. The poets come to help bring Chirpie back and each have lovely but unsuccessful ideas to bring him out of the tree. Finally Claude the cat comes out of the tree and then Chirpie and many other birds enjoy all the poet’s efforts ( seeds, yarn for nests , etc… ).