How to Make a Bird

The students at Bridgewater PS read the book How to Make a Bird illustrated by Matt Ottley with text by Meg McKinlay which was nominated in the Picture Book category. For their Creative response the students got to grips with the text by creating their own birds.

We went out to the yard to find things to make our birds. We also used bits and pieces from the craft cupboard.
Here are our birds!

Riley: I sort of did paper mache for the head. For the beak I cut the tip off a little paddle pop stick and split it. For the nest I used pipe cleaners. And feathers! I loved the illustrations because there is lots of colour and detail.
Marley: I made a heart and covered it with paper for the body. It has sticks for legs and a wire beak. There are feathers for the tail. The book is good because there is a girl making a bird and she let it go.
Jasper: I made the skeleton out of pipe cleaners and the feathers are on the outside so it makes a wind tunnel so it can fly. It is a good book but it is a bit confusing because it is like an information book. I like how the bird is made out of old things like shells and bones.
Issy: I made a heart and I have feathers for the wings. I like the illustrations because it showed how they made the bird.
Isaac: I used an old peg for the skeleton. For the wings, I used a skewer and little pegs that I glued the feathers on. I glued the tail feathers on. I used a little peg on the end for the head. I stuck feathers on its body and it’s done! The book was very, very, very good because it showed a lot on the one page. It was interesting how they made the bird. The girl used her imagination.
Gus: I’ve got a seed pod for the body. I used card for the wings stuck together with paddle pop sticks. I got feathers and stuck them onto the seed pod for the tail. I thought the book was very good, I liked all the illustrations and the colour. I liked the background.
Emily: I used some wood for the body and I used a pipe cleaner for the head and a leaf for the beak. The eyes are olives, the wings are really smooth leaves and the tail is really pretty feathers. I liked the drawings and how it was so pretty.