3-D Art Project

Birds of a Feather Art Project: A Lesson about the Beauty of Diversity.

In art class we did a 3D art project. The lesson was centered on diversity. The class first watched a video that was related to diversity. The video was about a bunch of identical birds who did not accept another bird which was different than they were. Our assignment was to create a 3D bird to reinforce the diversity theme. Here is the bird I created:

Friendly Bubba

The steps in creating the bird are as follows:

1.       The first step was to come up with a character which described our bird. Since the theme was on diversity, I choose to name my bird “Friendly Bubba.” The description of my character is as follows: "I am native to Brazil. I am a rare species, I am  unselfish and modest. I do not pick on others that are different—I make friends with them instead. I love to help out, even when I am busy. Life is enjoyable when we help others! My friends say I have a warm disposition just like the color of my feathers.” The card on which we wrote the description of our character was displayed alongside the bird.

2.       Cut out the parts of my bird—the wings, body, and tail—which had been traced onto a white cardboard paper.

3.       Glue together the body which consists of two sides.

4.       Color the bird. We were required to have some patterns on our bird.

5.       Glue the body together and attach the wings to the bird with glue. The back section is attached to the bird by cutting a slit into the back feathers and on the back part of the bird body and slipping them together.

6.       Punch a hole on the ends of wings and on the middle of the body right above the wings.

7.       Add colored feathers or create texture with tissue paper. We were required to add texture to our bird—visual and tactile texture.

8.       Put a string through the holes you punched—that would be three strings—and tie them together so the bird wings are positioned as in flight.

9.       The bird is ready to display

 Extension activity

This art project could be used in other subject areas, specifically in science when birds are being studied in middle school. The students would all create their own type of bird—it could be a colorful bird that lives in a jungle or a bird that is native to the western United States, etc. The students would do research on the bird they choose, write a short description on the specific bird they choose, and when the bird is displayed, the description would be displayed alongside their bird.