We're taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch this weekend & to help us record our observations, we made these colourful bird pencil toppers. They'd make a great addition to any nature table or wildlife project, & what's really neat is that they make great puppets too!
Made from recycled materials & a pencil, these little birds are frugal to make, & an ideal craft to share with a group of children. We made these recently at an after-school club & the children's creations were just beautiful.
To make them we used: A cardboard box, scraps of colourful material (we used felt), gloopy glue, googly eyes, sticky tape, & a pencil.
We started by cutting our cardboard box into smaller sections, & then drew around a simple bird template before cutting it out. You can find a variety of bird templates online.
Then we attached the pencil firmly to one side of the cardboard using tape.
Before cutting our fabric, we thought about the types of wild birds we wanted to make & had a look through our bird spotter books, observing the colours of the feathers & beaks.
Once we had chosen our bird & scraps of material, we cut out small oval shapes to make the feathers to decorate our templates.
Now to decorate the birds! We found it easier (& quicker) to cover one side of the template with glue & then stick on the feather shapes. The Big Garden Bird Watch Guide was great to use as a reference.
When we had completed one side, we carefully turned the bird over & decorated the other side. You could wait for the first side to dry before decorating the second, but it's not necessary; just make sure you have the tabletop covered. We made beaks using small triangles of felt & stuck them on along with the eyes.
We loved making these & soon had quite a collection!
They have come in very handy for filling in our Big Garden Bird Watch activity sheet, & recording our findings.
These pencil toppers have been so much fun to create & use this weekend, & I'm sure they'll be popular for many weeks yet.
Making them gave us a great opportunity to talk about different birds, their habitats, food, & the impact of environmental conditions on the wildlife in our garden. It also made us consider what we can do to help the birds in our own backyard.
What a cute way to celebrate the wild birds in your garden & encourage an interest & care for local wildlife too!
Looking for more bird-themed crafts? You might like these:
