DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Spring Branch Paper Craft

This is an easy cut and paste paper craft for young children to assemble during the spring.

It's a nice craft accompaniment to books about baby birds, like "Are You My Mother?" or my free printable mini book, "Mommy Bird".  It also works for an "N is for Nest" alphabet lesson.

You may also like: 

• Bird Nest Paper Plate Craft
• Fall Branch Paper Craft
• Summer Branch Paper Craft
• Winter Branch Paper Craft

Materials:

• printer,
• paper, 
• scissors,
• glue,
• something to color with (black and white version)
   
• Optional:  scraps of "nest colored" wool -- browns, yellows, greys, blacks
   
• Optional:  blue construction paper for a background

Craft Instructions:

• Print out the template of choice (I always prefer black and white, but sometimes the color version is nice for making a sample for a large group of kids or for a quick craft project).
• Color the template pieces if using the black and white version of the craft.
• Cut out the template pieces.  Most of the pieces are very easy to cut out (the leaves are the most challenging) so this makes a great scissor skills activity for kindergarten or early grade school children.
• Glue the bird nest on a branch together; optionally, you can glue all the pieces onto a blue construction paper background:
   
  • Glue the nest behind the branch (so the branch sits over top of the nest). You'll notice in the photo we got that wrong -- and that's ok!!
  • Glue the baby birds into the nest (so the nest sits over top of the birds)
  • Glue the leaves onto the branch
  • Refer to the image at the top of this instruction page if you get stuck.
• Note:  I can pretty much promise you that the kids won't assemble the project exactly the way I envisioned it.  That's ok!!  Let them put the pieces together in whatever way inspires them.
   
• Optional:  Snip small pieces of nest colored wool (colors like brown, grey, black and gold) and glue them onto the paper nest.

Templates:

• After printing, close the template window to return to the main page.
• If the template doesn’t fit on one page, adjust your printer margins:
  • In most browsers: Print → More settings → Margins → Minimum
  • Or use Page Setup / Printer Setup in your printer dialog

Template   (color)   or   (B&W)

Printable version of these instructions