Winter Cardinal Art Project For Kids
This project is inspired by one I saw on Instagram from @art_with_mrs.h. Find the post here.
Since I currently don’t have a sink in my classroom, I didn’t want to do as much painting so I adapted it to use other materials instead.
You can certainly make a more elaborate background or use a piece of cardboard to stamp the needles on the tree. Tons of ways to make this your own!
In case you didn’t know, female cardinals aren’t bright red, they’re more of a tan/brownish colour. You can have them make one of each or students could choose which cardinals they’d like to make.
Time required: ~45 minutes
Suggested grade: 1-4
Materials
Blue construction paper
Bird pieces printed: red body, brown body, white eye
If doing tracers instead, each student will need enough red and brown to make the bodies of their birds
Small squares of orange and black construction paper
Oil pastel: green, brown
Sharpie
Scissors
Glue stick
White paint and large brush (for snow splatter)
Steps:
Note: the example is landscape but this could work in portrait orientation too
Use brown oil pastel to draw some branches on your blue construction paper. They can go in different directions.
Use green oil pastel to add needles to the branches. If you have dark and light green, it adds some nice variation.
I printed body template pieces onto construction paper. If this isn’t an option for you, use the template to make tracers and supply your students with enough paper to create their pieces.
Cut out all body parts (main body, tail, wing).
Cut out an eye and two triangles triangles (orange and black) for each bird.
Assemble the bird. Body first, then face features. **Be careful, glue tends to stain construction paper.
Model the assembly to ensure that the bird ends up the right way up, scooped belly below etc.
Glue each bird sitting on a branch, somewhere on a page.
Draw a pupil on the eye using a Sharpie or black marker.
Make the snow by using liquid paint and tapping your large brush over the paper.
Set aside to dry.
