Stained-Glass Birds

We've been having a little problem with birds hitting our front windows lately. It used to happen a couple times a year, but recently it's been happening a couple times a week. We have some feeders near the windows and we don't want to move them because they are fun to look at (and the cats really enjoy it as well!). I've noticed black bird decals on windows of some buildings and at the zoo, so I thought we'd try that at home. Of course, I wanted something more colorful. So I found a flying bird template (here), printed it out the size I needed, and traced it on black construction paper. Then I traced around it, about 1/4" away from my original tracing. I cut along the outside line first, then along the inside line so I had a nice thick outline of the bird. I put it on the inside of a laminating sheet and my daughter filled it in with colorful tissue paper squares.

We didn't use any glue. Everything just sat on top of the laminating sheet. You can also use contact paper, but I like how the laminator makes it extra glossy. She covered the entire inside of the bird.

We didn't worry about staying inside the black outline because it was getting trimmed after it was laminated.

Only one side will have the black outline, but you could always use a Sharpie to draw in an outline on the other side. I didn't mind. I just made sure the outline was facing in when I hung them in the windows. I also decided to hang up the black bird that was cut from the middle. The display looked beautiful this morning!

Yes, that is a squirrel down there eating all the leftovers! And no, I didn't wash my windows before putting them up. Don't judge me! We ended up making a couple more today for the bottom windows as well. Hopefully we won't have any more feathered friends flying into our windows!

Rockin' Robins

Tweet, tweet, tweet...

We studied birds last week and the kids noticed we have a bunch of robins that hang around our playground. So although robins weren't on my lesson plan originally, I had to add them in. And of course I couldn't resist doing a robin craft. I painted the kids' feet brown and made prints. When they were dry, I cut them out leaving a big "belly" on the inside of the foot. The kids painted glue on this belly and applied crumpled-up orange tissue paper squares to it.

Then they added yellow beaks and brown feet. I decided to make these birds rock stars, so I drew in sunglasses.

I printed out some guitars and microphones for the kids to color and hung them up with the birds. I also made some musical notes.

I had planned on putting the guitars on the birds to make it look like they were playing, but it wasn't working so I just hung them up next to the birds. The microphones were a nice touch, though.

And you can't help but get the song stuck in your head every time you see my door.

Tweet, tweedle-lee-dee!

Fun Fact: Robins are known for their running and stopping behavior.

Pretty Peacocks

I've done peacock crafts in the past (here and here) and loved them, but I wanted to try something different this year. If you remember my turkey craft from tissue boxes, I said I was saving the blue boxes for peacocks. I loved the design.

For this craft I cut really long rounded feathers, which means I didn't get as many feathers from each box as I had hoped. So I also cut some feathers from construction paper. First the kids glued the feathers onto a semi-circle.

Then they dipped their thumb in glue and made prints on the feathers. I received some teal glitter from CraftProjectIdeas.com and sprinkled it on the glue prints. It was the perfect finishing touch.

The body of the peacock was made the same as the other crafts.

Blue cocktail toothpicks were added to the head for the crest and the body was glued onto the feathers.

The kids didn't fill out their peacocks the way I did, so I probably would have had enough tissue box feathers, but I like the mixture anyway.

Fun Fact: The train of a peacock can be up to six feet long!

Valentine Birdies and Silhouettes

I saw this cute door display at Life In First Grade. It was a bunch of birds on tree branches and the teacher called them her "tweethearts." I decided to do something similar with the kids. I found a bird template here, enlarged it and traced it with different colored markers. The kids painted the birds with glitter watercolors.

When they were dry, the kids added a heart folded in half for the wing and a smaller heart for the eye.
Then I cut them out.

I displayed them in the hall with some small hearts and titled it Ms Betsy's Tweethearts.

I also wanted to show you the silhouettes we made last week when we had our shadow theme. I cheated and took pictures of the kids instead of trying to trace their shadows. (I've done that in the past and it's really hard to do because they are always moving!) Then I printed out the pictures as 8x10s (in draft mode to save ink), cut them out and used them as templates. The kids used heart cookie cutters to decorate white paper and then I put their silhouette on it.

I like how it looks like they are thinking lovely thoughts.

To see other silhouette ideas, go here and here.

Roly Poly Penguins

I have a cute penguin craft to share with you today! I cut paper into 3-inch strips and rolled them up. Then I stapled two rolls together.

We used glue dots to attach wiggle eyes to the top roll.

Then we added paper beaks, white bellies, feet and flippers.

 

 

Most of the penguins were able to stand on their own because of the big feet!

 

 

The only reason we made purple and pink ones is because I was running low on black paper, but I actually really like the variety! They are all so cute!

I also brought in some plastic eggs so the kids could try to walk while balancing the eggs on their feet, just like Emperor penguins!

Needless to say, it didn't work so well. And some of the kids were actually disappointed that there wasn't a baby penguin in their egg! I'll have to remember that for next year.

 

Fun Fact: Most penguins live in the southern hemisphere. The Galapagos penguins are the only ones that might cross over to the northern hemisphere.

Pine Cone Snowy Owls

I had a bunch of jumbo pine cones left over from my Christmas decorations. They are the cinnamon-scented ones. So as I was putting away all my decorations, I decided to hang on to them and use them for a craft with my class. Today was the day. I've seen many pine cones turned into snowy owls, and since our theme is Polar Animals this week, we tried it out. It was so easy! We used cotton balls, wiggle eyes and paper beaks.

The kids tore apart the cotton balls and stuffed them into the pine cones. No glue was needed!

Then we used glue dots to attach the eyes and beaks. Even though snowy owls have yellow eyes, I let the kids pick whatever color eyes they wanted. Look at these cuties!

 (Hee, hee -- love that one!)

Fun Fact: A snowy owl's legs and feet are heavily feathered to protect it from the cold.