Kids Craft-Doe Doe Birds

Wednesdays are now KIDS CRAFT days. I do enough crafts with my kids I figured I should document them each week and share my ideas with all of you. This week we created one of my childhood favorite crafts. DOE DOE BIRDS. When I was a kid I always looked forward to the Puyallup fair in Washington State. My family would make a trip together. We would ride the rides, enjoy some good old fattening fair food, and check out all the livestock and farm grown vegetables. Then at the end of the night we would stop by the DOE DOE BIRD stand and make our very own bird to have in our rooms for the rest of the year.

Since I haven't seen any DOE DOE BIRD stands in my neighborhood I decided to go and buy the supplies so we could make our own in our home. Here is what you need.

-colored sand (Hobby Lobby $2.50/bottle and we used 1/2 of a bottle for 4 birds)
-clear bottles (Hobby Lobby $.99, plastic)
-wiggly eyes
-felt for the hair
-golf tees
-a funnel
-small measuring cup
-hot glue gun

These are so easy to make, great for toddlers up. I started by asking the kids to pick out their bottles. Then we placed the funnels in the top of the bottle while I scooped a little bit of sand into the measuring cup. Then the kids put the sand into the funnel and down into the bottle. I would ask them what color of sand, if they wanted a thick stripe or a thin stripe, and allowed the kids to do as much of the craft as they could without making a total mess.

 

 

Once your bottle is full I cut the felt in a strip about 11 inches long. I cut into the top of the strip making squiggly lines, long straight cuts, and short triangle top strips. Then the kids picked out their eyes for the birds and the golf tee for the nose. I let the kids roll the felt tightly and then I used hot glue to glue the felt into the top of the bottle sealing in the sand and giving the bird some hair (no cap for the hair, that was just precautionary so there were no spills). Next I glued on the eyes and the golf tees.

 

They had so much fun that the kids decided to make a 2nd bird each.

This is a great project for color recognition, measuring, and hand-eye coordination.