Hatching Spring Chick Craft

These Spring Chicks are easy to make and look great displayed on a wall, or fridge, or used as greetings cards.

Make the egg open and close and become a design technology detective as you explore using simple hinges and levers.

What you need:

• Card, construction paper/paper (for making the egg and chick)
• Materials for decorating your egg and chick with e.g. colouring pens and pencils, crayons, paint, tissue paper, recycled wrapping paper or fabric, clean foil sweet wrappers
• A piece of paper or card (to stick the chick and egg on)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• A glue stick or white craft glue (Top tip: White craft glue dries clear)

Optional

• A paper fastener (brass plated fastener) for making an egg that you can open and close

What to do:

1. Take a piece of paper/card and use it to make a chick. Make your chick by;

• drawing your chick free-hand

• drawing around two different sized circle shaped objects (see below)

• or cutting out and drawing around the circles on the free, printable Spring Chick template.

2. Decorate your chick. Be creative.

3. Take another piece of paper/ card and draw an egg shape on it. Cut the egg out.

Top tips:

• Make sure that the egg you draw is smaller than the paper/card that you are going to fasten it to and bigger than your chick.
• You can cut out and use, or draw around the egg shape on the free, printable Spring Chick template.
• If you want your egg to open and close, make it out of card. It will be stronger.

4. Cut your egg in half so that it looks as if the chick has pecked its way out of it.

5. Decorate both pieces of the egg.

6. Place another piece of paper or card flat on a surface. This will be the base for your art work.

• If you are making your Spring Chick art into a card, fold this piece of paper/card in half. Place it on the surface so that the folded edge is either at the top of the card (furthest away from you) or at the left-hand side of the card.

7. Place your chick on top of the base paper/card. Move it around until you are happy with where it is and glue it on.

8. Place the bottom half of the egg on the base paper/card, so that the chick looks as if it is just popping out of the egg, and stick it down with glue.

9. Either;

• Place the top part of the egg where you want it on the base paper/card and stick it down with glue.

  Or, to make an egg that opens and closes;

• Place the top half of the egg over the chick (so that the egg looks whole again and you cannot see the chick).

• Carefully, push a paper fastener through the bottom left or right hand side of the top half of the egg and the base card.

Top tip: If you are making a greetings card, make sure that you unfold the base card first, so that it is its original size, before pushing the paper fastener through it.

• Turn over the paper/card. Push the two legs of the paper fastener apart until they are lying flat against the card/paper.

• You will now be able to move the top half of the egg to reveal and hide the chick.

Activity develops:

• Fine motor skills and hand eye coordination
• Language skills, including mathematical vocabulary related to shape
• Understanding about simple hinge and lever mechanisms
• Creativity