Birdies
The million dollar question…what comes first? The Bird or the Egg? Guess we all had quite a bit of eggs over the Easter break (burp) so let’s throw the limelight on the birds this time round. There are many ways you can create a bird, this is one of the easiest way to get a decent form without having to go through too much troubles. The use of aluminium foil to hold the form works very well. The following craft activity is adapted from something similar that I’d chanced upon while browsing in a library a while back.
What you need are:
- used newspaper/magazine
- aluminium foil
- PVA glue
- sticky paper
- scissors/cutters
- coloured paper
- cardboard pieces (for beak & feet)
- crayons/ markers (to decorate eyes)
Instructions:
- Crush newspaper/magazine into 2 balls. One is smaller than the other. Former being the head and latter, the body. Fold up some paper to be used as a tail.
- Use sticky tape to hold the 3 parts together.
- Tear (generously) and use aluminium foil to wrap and ‘sculpt’ the bird. The aluminium foil should be tightly ‘squeezed’ so that they hold the form nicely.
- Pinch the neck area to differentiate the head from the body. Also taper out the tail bit so that it stays flat.
- Tear up strips of magazine/newspaper to be used as feathers. You may sort out the strips into different colours if you want to use particular colours for the plumage.
- Apply PVA glue onto the bird, starting from the tail. Stick on the pieces of paper. You want the paper to overlap each other nicely so that they look layered.
- Work from the tail towards the head. Make sure that the length of the paper varies. The head and body should have shorter pieces while you can opt for longer pieces for the wings and tail.
- Once covered, set aside to dry overnite.
- Cut up some small pieces of cardboard to be used for the beak and feet.
- Make a little triangular fold for the beak and attach to the head with PVA glue. Likewise, cut out the feet and stick them to the bottom of the body. Try to have the feet in the centre of the bird so that it is balanced between the head and tail and it’d be able to stand.
- Draw/paint the eyes on coloured paper and attach onto the head. You may add additional plumage for the head.
So there you have it, your very own lil birdies…now get them to keep an eye on your leftover easter choc eggs, by making a comfy nest and place in the eggs and birds.