Rocking Spring Chicks and Hens
Hello there to all our lovely children and families who love coming to the Library. At Manchester Libraries we know that you all look forward to our Children’s Craft sessions at your local library during the school holidays.
This Easter even though we are all staying at home to keep everyone safe, we thought we’d show you a few simple ideas to make at home with a bit of help from Mum, Dad or any handy grown ups!
Here we have some simple Rocking Spring Chicks and they are all made out of paper. If you’d like to make these cute Easter chicks, here’s how.
You will need:
- Card or paper (recycled is fine) in yellow, white, orange and red or whatever colours you like
- Round things like a bowl and a glass to draw circles with – 1 big and 1 small
- Pencils, felt tips and scissors
- Glue stick and sticky tape
- Googly Eyes (optional)
- Shredded paper for the nest (optional)
Firstly draw your circles by drawing around the bowl or glass and cut out the circles. You will need 1 big circle for the Hen and 2 smaller circles for the Chicks. Fold each circle in half and stand up on the round edge – giving you the basic shapes of the chicks
Feathers Cut out 8-10 smaller feathers or wing shapes out of oblong pieces of the leftover paper or card, or dig around in your paper recycling for some pretty leftover paper or card.
Snip into the edges to get the feathery look (get your adult to help with this) – then gently flick or bend out the snipped bits to roughen them up and make them look feathery. Stick one or two feathers to each side of each shape to make the wings.
Beak Cut a small triangle of orange or red paper for the beak and fold in two to make a beak. Stick to the inside of the chick with a small piece of sticky tape or glue.
Tail Feathers Cut narrow strips of paper in red, orange, yellow and white and gently curl or tease the ends with your fingers or a pencil or the edge of a CLOSED pair of scissors (Adults – help with this bit). Stick 4 or 5 tail pieces in a cluster together with sticky tape and tape it to the inside fold of the chick so that the curly pieces extend outside.
Eyes Stick a Googly eye on either side of the chick – big eyes for the mummy hen, little eyes for the chicks. If you don’t have googly eyes, a couple of small dark buttons stuck on with glue will do. You can even draw on an eye with a black marker pen if you are feeling artistic, or simply cut 1 big circle in white paper and a small circle in blue or black paper.
Nest The nest is optional and was made from a bit of old paper packaging material left over – but you can make your own nest. Cut lots of really narrow strips of paper, (old tissue paper or old wrapping paper is great for this) scrunching them up to make a nest shape for the Hen to sit on. If Mum or your grown up has a paper guillotine or better still a home shredder, they could make some nest strips for you but please you must ask an adult first. Shape the nest into a rough circle and pop in the Hen and Chicks.
These Chicks also make really pretty Spring greetings cards – just write your message inside!
I hope you enjoy making your Chicks and look out for the next Children’s Craft activity soon!
Happy Easter Holidays!