Handicrafts are an opportunity to decorate your home, realize your creative fantasies, and introduce your child to various materials and tools. Often craftswomen are faced with a dilemma - what to do with their own hands? Let’s work on a “chicken” craft today, let’s try to create it from paper, plasticine, fabric and waste materials.
Paper chickens
Paper serves as the most pliable and accessible material for children's creativity. A chicken craft made from paper in the form of an applique will be suitable for younger children. It should immediately be noted that in such work there are different degrees of complexity.
The simplest option would be a regular flat applique in the form of one or several chickens cut out of paper according to a template. They will need to be glued onto a cardboard base. If desired, the composition can be supplemented by drawing grass and the sun with paints or felt-tip pens.
You can complicate the task by creating a three-dimensional application. For example, the flat body of a chicken, cut out according to a template, can be complemented with wings made from narrow yellow paper ribbons.
You will need to glue each element that forms the wings separately. This will require the child's attention and concentration.
- An interesting option would be a craft with details in the shape of children's hands. This exciting process will appeal to children of both middle and primary school age. It is convenient to cut out the base of the craft from cardboard, and then attach wings in the shape of palms to it.
- Another technique for creating a three-dimensional appliqué involves forming a three-dimensional body from a sheet of colored paper. A whole sheet of A4 format must be cut into two halves, the resulting parts folded like an accordion. The blanks are fanned out and sequentially glued onto a cardboard base. Then they are supplemented with drawn or flat details: paws, wings, eyes and beak.
- Original crafts are made using the quilling technique. At the preparatory stage, it is necessary to cut a sufficient number of narrow strips of yellow paper. The number of strips directly depends on the degree of complexity of the final product. It’s easy to create primitive chickens using the quilling technique by twisting two strips of paper into a spiral. One blank will serve for the head, and the other for the body of a funny chick. Using the same technique, it is easy to make a beak and a funny comb on the top of the head. The remaining elements can be drawn with a marker.
The contour quilling technique will require a long preparation of a sufficient number of paper spirals to fill the form.
A photo of a chicken craft using the quilling technique serves as evidence that individual elements can be used to create a three-dimensional craft of a high degree of complexity.
This is interesting
Chicken - this is the disdainful name given to women who are narrow-minded, timid and “down-to-earth”, who are overly bogged down in everyday problems. There are a lot of sayings about the most famous poultry, most of which have a negative connotation and are dedicated specifically to stupidity.
However, chickens are actually highly intelligent. They are able to communicate with each other, recognize faces well and remember people who offended them or, on the contrary, showed concern. Italian scientists conducted an experiment in which they proved that laying hens even have some arithmetic abilities. In any case, they visually determine the number of objects, analyze their ratio and make a choice based on their observations.
During the experiment, newborn chicks were shown containers with Kinder surprises. One had 3 and the other had 5 eggs. The kids only approached the package with the predominant number of toys. When some of the eggs were transferred to the second container, the chickens, once looking inside, headed to where the Kinders were added.
“Clucks like a chicken,” is another catchphrase about those who talk nonsense incessantly. In fact, the sounds the bird makes are not nonsense at all. They are a rather complex language with a large amount of information. Here is a message about found food, a warning about danger, and, according to scientists, flirtatious flirtations with the individual they like. Chickens “talk” not only with adult relatives, but also with chicks that have not yet hatched. They use especially kind, soothing “words.” And the babies, already ready for birth, squeak in response.
Chickens from Kiders
If you urgently need to make a homemade product for a kindergarten, it is reasonable to consider as an option making a chicken from containers for chocolate kinders.
The advantage of plastic kinder for use as a base is the shape and color of the product.
- Just glue on the eyes, beak, wings and legs from plasticine or colored paper, and the funny chicken is ready.
Chickens from chicken eggs
An ordinary chicken egg will serve as not only a convenient, but also quite logical workpiece for crafts. In this case, the chicken-from-egg craft involves using a shell as a base, from which the contents are carefully extracted.
- At the preparation stage, a raw chicken egg will need to be washed, pricked on both sides, and the white and yolk removed. After this, the workpiece can be easily decorated using elements made of paper, salt dough or plasticine. If desired, the egg can be pre-painted using gouache or watercolor in a bright yellow color.
- Having adopted the idea, it is easy to apply it to decorate a festive table using boiled eggs and carrot decor.
If desired, it is possible to use eggshells as mosaic elements to decorate a three-dimensional chicken craft made from plasticine or salt dough.
Such a product, coated with colorless varnish at the final stage of work, will not lose its spectacular appearance for a long time.
Step by step origami chicken | Holiday every day
The Holiday website presents a step-by-step origami chicken master class every day. A paper chicken can serve as a decoration for a postcard or gift for Easter. Making an origami chicken is very easy; a 5-year-old child can handle this paper product.
To make a bird you will need a square sheet of paper, approximately 15 by 15 centimeters in size.
Fold the paper in half from bottom to top.
Fold the side corners towards the top corner. At the same time, align yourself with the center marked with a white dotted line.
Fold the diamond along the red line and fold the right half back.
Now let's make the chicken wing. To do this, bend the top part to the right and down.
Unfold the origami chicken.
Now we’ll make the second wing in the same way as the first - bend the top corner (1 layer) and press it.
Now fold the bottom corner up diagonally along the red line. Then straighten the corner.
To make the chicken's legs, fold the bottom left corner inward.
Open the origami chicken.
Color the upper corner on the inside with a red marker - this is the future crest.
Turn the top corner inside out, like a hood, to create a tuft. Then fold the bottom layer inward to create a chicken beak.
And now our cute origami chicken is ready!
Other craft ideas from the website Every Day is a Holiday:
Yarn chickens
Many interesting ideas can be realized using yarn.
The simplest craft is made from pompoms. It is recommended to make it from inexpensive acrylic yarn, the advantage of which is its bright color and budget cost.
- To make pompoms, you will need a couple of cardboard templates, on which you need to tightly wrap a sufficient amount of yarn.
- The threads are carefully cut along the edge, the templates are moved apart, and the middle of the workpiece is fixed.
- Then the templates are removed, the resulting pompom is straightened, and then added with decorative details.
- The beak, wings and eyes can be cut out of colored paper.
- You can complicate the task a little by making a pair of pom-poms (head and body).
- Such crafts have a funny look, and an elementary school student can easily handle the work.
- Using yarn, you can realize other ideas.
- You can wrap a thick thread around a piece of cardboard or plasticine, and also create an interesting applique.
- Craftsmen who know how to knit can easily make funny chickens using knitting needles or a crochet hook.
Origami birds
Origami birds are especially popular and easy to make. It is customary to fold different origami birds, which are especially revered in the East.
For example, a crane in Eastern culture symbolizes wisdom, beauty and longevity, marital fidelity, a dove is a symbol of peace and love, a swan is a symbol of purity and nobility, a stork is a harbinger of spring and offspring, an owl means wisdom, and so on.
There are a huge number of varieties of origami birds. You can add any bird you like. You will definitely like such a gift in the form of a paper bird and it will be meaningful. Photos of origami birds can be found on specialized websites and blogs.
Chickens made from threads
The technique of creating toys using threads and a balloon deserves special consideration. The work is quite simple, and the result is very original.
To create a chicken craft from threads you will need:
- Yellow threads
- PVA glue,
- A small balloon
- Decorative details.
Work progress:
- It’s easy to simplify the task if you place the glue in a small plastic container, the bottom of which can be easily pierced with a needle.
- The first step is to inflate the balloon. Then pass the thread through a bottle of glue and wrap the ball in different directions.
- It is important not to wrap the base too tightly in order to maintain the openwork structure of the product.
- Having finished winding the ball, the workpiece is additionally covered with a layer of glue. After the glue has dried, the ball is pierced with a needle and the remains are carefully removed.
- After this, they begin to decorate, gluing on the scallop, wings, paws, beak and eyes. Decorative elements are easy to glue together from colored paper.
If you don’t have a yellow thread at hand, then it’s easy to paint the workpiece with acrylic paint.
Chicken postcard
You can make it yourself in a few minutes, and you need a minimum of materials. And how nice it will be for a child to give such an unusual card, for example, on Easter to his friends or grandparents.
On hand should be a sheet of bright yellow paper, several small pieces of red, orange and pink, a felt-tip pen in a contrasting color, glue and scissors.
We cut out the main template and hearts for the paws, crest, wings, and beak.
We fold the body in half and glue decorative hearts to it. We draw the eyes with a felt-tip pen.
All that remains is to write the words of congratulations inside the card.
Chickens made from natural materials
Natural material also serves as a good basis for home creativity. The shape of the nuts or cones will naturally suggest how to make a chicken craft.
- You can make an entertaining chicken from walnuts held together with plasticine in just twenty minutes.
- Round pine cones can be pre-dipped in yellow acrylic paint. After the paint has dried, the workpiece is supplemented with plasticine parts. You can sculpt the head, wings and legs from plasticine or cut it out of paper.
- For a themed display, it's easy to use lemon, orange, or medium-sized potato tubers to create the chicken.
Working together to create funny chickens will help you spend your family time productively. Homemade creativity promotes the diversified development of the child and brings all family members closer together.
History in simple words
Nowadays the Land of the Rising Sun is called the birthplace of origami, but the history of this art begins in China. The first paper was received here. Initially it was used only for writing, but later other uses were found. Based on them, the first simple origami patterns for children and adults were discovered.
Once paper production was established, origami became part of the culture in Japan. When creating the figurines, it was important not only to convey the exact shape of the craft, but also to convey the spirit of nature. Therefore, the production is based on a square sheet, because it was considered the embodiment of the world. The figure cannot be cut so that the integrity is not compromised.
Art was passed on from parents to children. Initially there were few figures, now paper origami patterns for children can be very different. They allow you to get an interesting craft and have fun spending your free time.