Clay Birds

I can't remember where I came across this clay bird idea.  But I couldn't resist the opportunity to try it in my 1st grade classes.  

We started out by talking about what shapes to use for each part of the bird.

Body=Half circle

Head=Circle

Beak=Triangle

Wing=Half Circle

Students then drew 3 practice drawings using the shapes we talked about.
We discussed how they needed plan holes for where the feet, top wire, and tail would go.

After our designs were finished I did a clay demo.  I reminded them to scratch and attach their pieces, smooth the edges, and not to punch the holes too close to the edge.

The next week we made our clay birds! Which they had a blast creating!  We used stencils to help them cut out the body and head shape. I was really proud that they all remembered to scratch and attach.

Once our birds flew out of the kiln, we were ready to paint them. I had a variety of tempera colors, and even some new neon colors we tried out. It took an entire class period to paint these.  Some even needed extra time the next class to finish up.  They are always so amazed by how fast the paint dries on our clay.

The next class we started decorating our colorful birds.  We used half a pipe cleaner for each bird leg. I showed them how to twist it so they'd have bird toes.  They had a variety of objects on their table to create the tail.  Pipe cleaners, yarn, feathers, ribbon, beads, and paper.  Some of my little ones even made hats for their birds.

I had to help put the wire on the top of the birds.  I had bronze, silver, or gold to choose from. They were each able to add beads to their wire before I tied them on there.  

I was really pleased with our final product! Each bird seems to have their own personality.  The bottom two remind me of 1920's flappers. Very cute!