Circles create cardinals

This time of year, red birds, also called cardinals, can be seen hunting for seed in our area. Cardinals can be found all over Eastern North America, but they don’t migrate. The birds you see in your yard live in your town just as much as you do. Cardinals like to nest in dense tangles of bushes and vines like azaleas. For more information about them, see http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_cardinal/id.

This paper craft is inspired by a cardinal, and can teach children in Kindergarten and first grade about circles, and cutting on a curved line.

To make the project you will need

Light blue construction paper

Red construction paper

Scraps of green, orange and black construction paper

Scissors

Paper hole punch

Glue

CD’s or sour cream lids

Lids from baby food jars or Pringle’s cans, or poker chips

Cardboard cut into a leaf shape or oval lids from solid deodorant

Pencil

Pictures of cardinals for an example.

 

Step 1: Demonstrate how to use a CD for a tracer, running the pencil around the edge so that it touches the paper and CD at the same time. Trace three circles on red paper using a CD, and one smaller circle using a lid about two inches wide. Cut out the circles.

 

Step 2: Glue one of the large circles in the center of the blue sheet. Fold the other two large circles in half, and glue them on opposite sides of the first circle to make wings. The folded edge of the wing should point forward because this is how a wing works. The front edge of a wing is rounded to make the wind move faster, and that creates lift. 

 

Step 3: Glue the small circle to the sheet to make the head.

Cut a triangle from red paper and glue it to the body to make a tail. Cut a small triangle from orange or yellow paper to make a beak. Use a paper punch to make two small circles for eyes.

 

Step 4: Use a cardboard tracer to make four leaf shapes from green paper. The freshness seals that come on plastic containers of solid deodorants also make good tracers for this project, as do the lids. The caps from deodorant can be squished on each end with a pair of pliers to make the plastic pointed on each end like a leaf. Trace around the shapes on green paper and cut out four leaves. 

If you don’t have enough tracers for a large group, the plastic lids can be used as stamps with an ink pad.

The proper name for a leaf or football shape is vesica piscis. The shape is made when two circles overlap each other. Vesica piscis is Latin for “bladder of a fish” or a fish body. It looks like a fish without fins. In Italian, the shape is called mandorla, which means “almond”, a kind of nut. (Wikipedia)

 

Step 5: Glue the leaves to the paper to make it look like the bird is flying through the trees. This is called an “aerial view” because it is the view you would see from an air plane.

 

For an example of the finished project, see http://www.examiner.com/children-s-arts-crafts-in-panama-city/circles-create-cardinals?CID=examiner_alerts_article

Paula Hrbacek writes a column about children’s arts and crafts in the Examiner, a free online newspaper. Click the subscribe button on the bottom of the page, and new articles will be sent to you by email free of charge.