Feather-Painted Flamingos

Today was flamingo day! It was so fun learning about these birds. I love when I learn something new along with the children. I took last year's flamingo craft and changed it up a bit. I used the same pattern and traced a bunch of flamingo bodies and feet on white paper.

My original template was just something I drew myself while looking at a cartoon of a flamingo. If you don't feel like drawing your own, you can do a google search of flamingo templates. I put out a bunch of pink crayons so the kids could color the beak and feet. (Last year they colored the whole thing.) I also put out some black crayons for the tip of the beak.

Then, for the body, I put out three different shades of pink paint and added feathers.

The kids used the feathers as paintbrushes and gently swept the feathers across the paper.

It didn't need to be completely covered.

When they were dry I cut them out and assembled them the same way I did last year, by using tape to attach the pipe cleaners to the body, and more tape to attach the feet to the bottom of the pipe cleaners. (Although this year I used two full pipe cleaners. Last year I cut one in half. So our flamingos are much taller this year!) And I again taped two feathers to the back. But we did one more thing. As long as we had the pink paint out, I decided to paint each child's hand to make a print for the wing. When dry and cut out, the kids attached the wing and added a wiggle eye.

And those are our flamingos!

At the writing center today we learned about the letter F, so we practiced writing fly, feather and flamingo. Then the kids could draw a picture to go along with the words. I loved the flamingos they made, so I just had to take pictures!

I love the black flight feathers on the wings. The kids learned so much today!

Fun Fact: A flamingo's eye is bigger than its brain!

**Linking up to Sharing Saturday and TGIF!**

Flamingo Fun

Hello again! I have more bird crafts to share with you. I taught the kids about flamingos on Wednesday and then they each made their own. I drew a flamingo body (sans legs) free-hand and two webbed feet. Then I put out every shade of pink crayon that we have -- about 15. (We have the 120-count box of Crayola crayons and no two colors are the same. They also have crazy names, like Screamin' Green, Macaroni and Cheese, and, very fittingly, Pink Flamingo.) The kids colored their flamingos using as many shades of pink as they wanted. I also put out a black crayon for the beak. Then they added an eye and I cut everything out.

They picked out a pink pipe cleaner (I had three different shades) and I cut it in half. Now, I'm not a fan of glue and pipe cleaners. It never turns out well. So I went with clear packaging tape. Love that stuff. Anyway, the legs were taped to the back of the body and the feet were taped to the bottom of the legs (using very skinny pieces of tape).

Then the kids picked out a pink feather, just to add a little somethin', and that was also taped to the back of the body.

See how it just adds a bit of fun? When I displayed these around the room, I put some of the legs in walking positions and some in resting positions (with one leg up).

They look so good on our blue wall!

Last year I made them twice as big and the kids put a pink handprint on the body for the wing. I loved it but was trying to use less paper this year.

I do like my beak better in last year's drawing, though. It's more curved in at the tip, the way it should be. I have to make sure I do that next year.
So there you have it! Pretty in pink!

Fun Fact: A flamingo's "knee" is actually its ankle bone. They stand on their toes, like many birds, so it looks like their legs bend the opposite way as humans.