This is the perfect craft for celebrating Spring as well as developing fine motor skills by working those little hand and finger muscles. Your child will love carefully snipping their paper 'feathers' and giving them cute googly eyes.
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If, like my little ones, your child wants to make more than one, they make cute decorations for Easter - we've had ours stuck to the wall above our dining table for a few weeks now and they make me smile when I catch them out of the corner of my eye, especially Mr 2's creation with his little wonky feet 😁
To make the chicks you will need:
- Yellow and orange paper
- Glue stick
- Scissors
- Googly eyes
- Pencil
- Small plate
Start by placing your plate on the yellow paper and drawing round it, then carefully cut out the circle. A grown-up might need to help with this, as very young children find cutting in a continuous line a bit tricky.
Now you can give your chick feathers! Use scissors to make little cuts all around the outside, making sure you don't cut too deep. This is a great way to practice controlling scissors as you need to use quite precise, small movements. It doesn't matter if the fringing isn't even, it all adds to the charm!
Stick the googly eyes on with a glue stick. If you don't have googly eyes, you can make some from a thumb print in white paint and a little finger print in black paint in the middle, or using white paper and marker pen.
To make the beak - fold the edge of your orange paper over and cut out a triangle. Put glue on one half and stick on under the eyes. Then cut out some legs from the orange paper and glue those on.
To give them some wings, cut two oval shapes from yellow paper and create feathers using the same fringing technique as the body.
Not only is this craft great for strengthening hands and fingers, it's also great for hand-eye co-ordination and bilateral co-ordination (using both sides of your body simultaneously). And you don't need to stop at chicks, this scissoring technique works really well for any animal with feathers or fur - why not try bear faces or an owl?
For more ways to improving your little one's hand and finger movements read my guide to the best toys of developing fine motor skills
What fine motor activities have you tried? Let me know in the comments!
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Hi, I'm Vicki!
I'm an author and mum to three energetic boys who love learning in a playful and creative way! For more playful learning, creative inspiration and crafts, visit us at:
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