Awesome Science Craft Project For Boys - The Bird Kite

This year my 9 year old son is studying science using the Apologia Young Explorers Series Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day book. We are just getting started and already just after a few pages the creative juices started flowing. The book is full of great experiments, which is my son's favorite part about science but I wanted to throw in a simple arts & craft project to go along with the science theme.

In an effort to kill two birds with one stone (couldn't help myself!) the idea of making kites that look like birds began to form in my head. I wanted to incorporate a craft that used some of the science he had studied. The first chapter explains how the shape of a bird's wings contributes to its ability to fly. We had a lot of great discussion about this and how the study of birds has helped humans learn to fly airplanes.

I found a great tutorial on Krokotak and we went to town making a flock of seagulls....kites (ok, I'm sorry, it just slipped out!). This project required a minimal amount of supplies that you probably already have handy which makes it so easy to pull together last minute.

Now because my youngest, who just started kindergarten wanted to participate in the crafting I used this time to teach shapes, follow directions and measure the length of yarn. Cutting skills, coloring, folding and measuring are great skills for your little one to practice.

Here is what you need to make your own bird kite (a list of where I got my supplies is at the end of the post)

KITE INSTRUCTIONS:

8 1/2 x 11 piece of construction paper (white copy paper works fine too)
1 small scrap of orange paper cut into a triangle for the beak
3-4 small scraps of other colored paper for tail feathers (approximately 2" x 3")
scissors
stapler & staples
glue stick
18"- 24" piece of yarn
black crayon or marker to draw on eyes
hold punch

Fold the 8 1/2  x 11 in half matching the short sides together. The fold becomes the belly of the bird.

Next take the two of the corners at the top of the folded paper and bend them backwards towards the fold. As you fold them back until the tips of the paper meet at the fold. Staple the folded back tips right at the fold (belly of the bird body) to make the wings.

Next make a hole with the hole punch just behind where you stapled the wing down. Thread the yarn through the hole and tie it securely to the belly of the bird.

Now take the triangle shaped piece of orange paper and put a little glue on both sides of one of the triangle bases. Slip the glued edges into the narrow end of the folded paper where the bird's head is. It should now start to look like a bird with a beak.

With the marker draw eyes on both sides of the head just behind where you glued the beak.

Lastly, cute 3-4 long feather shapes from the small scraps of colored paper and glue the ends together one on top of the other. Put a dab of glue along both outsides of the stack of feathers and insert them at the back of the bird inside the fold to give your bird tail feathers.

Take the completed kite outside (or in a big open space inside) and gently pull the kite along with the yarn. The bird kite should fly even if there isn't any wind. Shorten the yarn to make the flying bird kite even easier to handle for younger children.

For the full video from Krokotak click here:

Of course this awesome craft project isn't limited to just boys! Girls are welcome to make these kites too. I just happened to make these fun kites with my two boys and thought it would be fun to write a post specifically for boys.

Supplies Found Here:

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Here are some of the supplies we used to make our kites:

Walmart

hole puncher from Walmart

yarn from Amazon

via: Amazon