Pretty Parrots

Today we reviewed the colors red, yellow, and orange. I taught about parrots and then we each made our own. I found this craft idea in a book called Pirate Things to Make and Do, but I changed it a bit. First I made a parrot body:

If you can't see that it's a parrot, imagine that the parrot has its body toward you, but is looking to the side. Then I cut out some beaks and feet and short strips of tissue paper for the tails. The kids glued everything on and drew in a big eye.

I know, those are horrible feet. I was orginally going to have the kids glue the body on another piece of paper, and then paint the feet themselves, but at the last minute I decided not to do that. So I had to cut out some feet quick. It's always tricky cutting out bird feet. Parrots have four toes, two facing the front and two facing the back. So I just made two toes, but they look more like little wrenches to me. Anyway, prior to all of this, I had the kids make handprints for the wings. I did this right away in the morning so they would be dry by the time we did art. I had five colors of paint...

...and the kids could pick three colors for me to paint on their hand.

Then they put their hands together to get the paint on the other hand, and then pressed them on paper.

Once dried and cut out, they glued them on their parrot bodies and I hung them on the wall.

Fun Fact: Parrots' toes are so strong they can hang upside down on a branch.