Make a funky flamingo for National Bookstart Week

Published on: 21 May 2018 Author: Louise Hampton

Get into the groove for a Bookstart Bird Boogie by helping your little ones create their very own fabulous flamingo, just like the one in this year's chosen book, A Busy Day for Birds.

This is a simple, colourful craft that you can enjoy together and there are lots of different materials you can use if you don’t have everything on the list. Here, we have used pipe cleaners to make the neck and legs, but you could use card or string for the legs instead.

Just follow the easy steps below and let your imaginations take flight!

National Bookstart Week takes place from 4-10 June 2018. Discover more fun stuff to help you celebrate and how you can get hold of a free copy of A Busy Day for Birds by Lucy Cousins.

You will need

• Pipe cleaners, string or card for the flamingo head and legs
• Card for the flamingo body - it doesn't have to be pink, any colour will do
• White paper
• Decoration - anything you have to hand, such as feathers, glitter, stickers, pom-poms, ribbon, pens, paints, crayons
• Googly eye or an eye drawn on paper
• Pink pen
• Black pen
• PVA glue, sticky tape or double-sided sticky tape

What to do

1. Cut a heart shape from your card. 

2. Help your child decorate the heart - how fancy and colourful can they make their flamingo?

3. Curve one pipe cleaner into a long 2 shape to make the neck.

4. To make the flamingo’s beak:

• Cut out a 1cm x 4cm shape with a curved end from the white paper
• Draw on the black end of the beak and shade in the rest with pink
• Stick your googly eye to the pink end of the beak, or draw on an eye using the black pen

5. Attach the beak to the neck and then attach the neck to the back of the heart.

6. Bend the pipe-cleaner legs into position (or make some legs using card or string) and attach them to the back of the heart.

Now you have a fantastic, funky flamingo and you’re all set for the Bookstart Bird Boogie!

Illustration © 2017 Lucy Cousins