Doodlebug Dabblings: painting and building paper birdhouses

This past Sunday there was a birthday party at the studio for a little girl turning six.

When her mother called, she said her daughter's request was she wanted to build something. A birdhouse perhaps?

I went round and round with ideas, but settling on something that was age appropriate, worked with a large group and could be completed in an hour and a half proved more challenging than I expected.

Until I started playing with ideas of building with paper!

Because of the girls ages and time constraint, I cut out the bird templates prior to the party and had them ready to assemble.

There were three parts, the house itself, the roof, and the "ground". I placed these on the table, along with a permanent marker and the supplies needed for watercolors.

Once all the first graders arrived, we got started. I gave each girl a palette of liquid watercolor in the primary colors.

I had them start with painting the piece that would become the ground. I figured it was a great starting point for them to get a feel of what the watercolors could do while learning how to blend colors they wanted and play with a couple of techniques. I also asked them some open ended questions of what they might find on the ground if they were looking and they shouted out some great ideas.

This particular house covered most of the ideas, it also happens to be the birthday girl, her ground is covered with spiders, worms, and birdseed.

When they finished the ground, I had the girls move onto painting the roof piece. Again with a couple of open-ended questions, we discussed different ways they could design and paint the roof. There were lots of ideas and many interesting solutions created by the artist.

There were spiders and birds.

Some traditional roofs in slate and tile and a multitude of rainbow colored roofs with many different interesting patterns.

Then the girls began designing their homes. I asked them to think about their own houses and then what a bird might like in a home. Some of the artist simple applied color to the house while others created detailed exteriors.

I love the warm light emitting from the window against the dark exterior of the house. Doesn't it just welcome you home?

Once they finished painting the house exteriors, it was time to get to work putting the pieces together. I did not anticipate the girls spending as much time as they did on the roofs and ground and so we were unfortunately running short on time if the girls were to eat pizza and cake before their parents arrived for pick up.

I put out some fast drying glue on paper scraps with Qtips for the girls to apply the glue onto the house flaps. I asked them to hold the pieces together and count to 50.

Now here is one of those "who knew" moments I run into as an art instructor. Counting out loud together as a group was LOTS of fun. The girls loved it and counted way past 50, which was great because I wanted to add a piece of tape over the flap to help keep the house in place until the glue really had time to set up and harden.

Then they placed glue on the bottom flaps and added the ground. I gave them pencils and told them to use the eraser as a hammer to put it in place. Then they added the roofs. All but two stayed in place with no problem. So while the girls ate their pizza and enjoyed birthday cake, I hot glued the two remaining roofs to make them stick.

I love these sweet little houses and how unique each one turned out. The girls were all quite pleased too when they left the party.