Inspire you children to be hummingbird environmentalists with these fun Hummingbird Tree Crafts
The Hummingbird is also called the messenger of joy and it is always good luck to see a hummingbird. I suddenly saw lots of hummingbirds around the time of my daughter Avery’s birth. Recently Avery and I made these cute hummingbird crafts to hang on trees in honour of tree planting hero and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai who died several months ago. She used to tell a beautiful story about the hummingbird: See it here: VIDEO: I will be a hummingbird. I will do the best I can.
Avery had a lot of fun making the hummingbird craft as it involved finger painting. We made a bunch of hummingbirds and decorated trees in Canada and two months later we brought hummingbirds with us to decorate a tree in Zambia. While on a children’s tree project in Zambia with The ChariTREE Foundation, I told local children the hummingbird fable and how everyone, no matter how small, can be a hummingbird environmentalist. VIDEO: from our ‘Tree Trip’ to Zambia.
What you’ll need to make your own hummingbird craft:
- Green and blue finger paint
- Silver sparkle paint in a tube
- Paint brush
- White construction paper
- Dark Blue marker
- Scissors
- Glue
- Glitter
- hole punch
- green ribbon
How to:
- Have your child finger paint two pieces of (100% recycled) paper with blue, green and silver. Try making hearts shapes too so the hummingbird will have hearts on it. Before the paint dries, sprinkle sparkles all over the hummingbird. Let dry for three hours.
- Cut the two pages into one big oval (for the body); two big triangles (for wings); one smaller triangle (for the tail); and one small but long triangle (for the beak). Fold the wings and tail pieces accordion style and glue them to the back of the oval. Add the beak, draw in the bird’s eyes. Draw lines along the wings with your silver sparkle paint.
- Once dry, punch a hole in one wing and tie a ribbon through it. Go outside and decorate a tree with hummingbirds.
When we made our hummingbirds we had no idea how far they would fly – all the way to Zambia! See video: http://youtu.be/pTDIQfwcsQA