Looking for a way to combine art with bird study? Today I’m sharing a beautiful (and easy!) bird eggs craft project to go along with the picture book, An Egg Is Quiet.
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If you saw our recent bird nest mixed media project, you know how much we enjoyed reading A Nest Is Noisy by Dianna Aston and Sylvia Long. We loved learning through that book, but we also found ourselves enamored by the beautiful illustrations. That’s how we made our way to today’s book, An Egg Is Quiet.
Bird Eggs Craft Project
From sea turtle eggs to penguin eggs to katydid eggs to black-necked stilt eggs, An Egg Is Quiet showcases lots of different eggs and their characteristics. It shows how eggs come in lots of colors, shapes, and sizes. This book also shows how eggs are protected and camouflaged and what happens before they hatch.
Just like our experience with A Nest Is Noisy, we found this picture book to be a beautiful combination of nature study and art! That’s why we decided to use the lovely egg illustrations in this book as inspiration for our own bird eggs craft. Here are the supplies we used:
- Clay (We used Crayola’s Air Dry Clay)
- Acrylic craft paints, assorted colors
- Paintbrushes
- Foil (optional)
Step 1 – Mold Eggs & Allow to Dry
Before we started our bird eggs craft, we prepared nests out of foil so that we would have a safe place for our eggs to dry after molding and painting. After that, we got to work by rolling and molding our air dry clay into eggs.
When we finished creating our eggs, we placed them in the foil nests and put them on a shelf to dry. We created fairly small eggs, so ours took about a day to air dry.
While we took the easiest approach to this step, you may prefer an option that uses less clay. You could do that by using foil to create an egg and then shaping the clay around that foil egg. At that point, you’ll need to bake it according to package instructions if you use an oven bake clay or allow it to air dry like we did.
Step 2 – Add First Layer of Paint
After our eggs were completely dry, we opened our An Egg Is Quiet copy and chose a few eggs for our inspiration. My little one loves all things pink, so it’s no surprise that she’d choose the booted warbler, black-capped mockingthrush, and black-naped oriole eggs for her project.
Once she chose her favorite eggs, I gathered our acrylic craft paints and she added the first layer of paint to all of our eggs. When she finished, she placed them in the foil nests and allowed them to dry.
This process was pretty quick. We were able to rotate the eggs and paint the first layer onto the bottoms after 15 minutes.
Step 3 – Add Paint Details
When the first layer dried, my daughter added spots and other markings to her eggs. Just as we did in step 2, we used our foil nests to allow the eggs to dry and then rotated them in order to add the same markings to the bottoms.
This step was also pretty quick for us. We were able to clean our brushes and pallet after another 15 minutes or so.
Step 4 – Seal & Enjoy!
Once the paint dries, it’s a good idea to seal the eggs using a glaze like this one. After sealing, you can display your clay bird eggs craft however you wish and enjoy!
For display, we created our own nest out of twigs, grass, pine straw, and yarn. And, since my little one created eggs that reminded her of three completely different bird eggs, we decided that there would be no way to create a semi-accurate nest. So, instead of accuracy, we opted to have fun with it and weaved together this hot mess of a nest. ;)
The Nature Book Club Monthly Linkup #4
April Theme: Insect and Animal Eggs
We’re loving our clay bird eggs craft, but we’re also excited to take a look at the other book-inspired ideas happening through The Nature Book Club. This month is all about eggs and you’re going to love all of these nature learning activities! Let’s take a look:
- Handbook of Nature Study – Birds, Nests, and Eggs – Bird nest and eggs notebook page
- The Usual Mayhem – Egg: Nature’s Perfect Package – Gustav Klimt artist study pages
- Eva Varga – Skates and Rays – A Mermaid’s Purse: A Surprise Discovery Within
- Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus – Our Sea Turtles – From Egg to Sea Turtle Unit Study & Lapbook
- Faith and Good Works – Chickens Aren’t The Only Ones – Chickens Aren’t The Only Ones Word Search Printable
- Eva Varga – Citizen Science: Nest Watch
- Rule This Roost – Egg: Nature’s Perfect Package – Egg Scavenger Hunt with Egg Carton
- Wind in a Letterbox – Chloe’s Eggs – Felt Bag handicraft
- Table Life Blog (That’s me!) – An Egg Is Quiet – Clay Eggs Project
- Hide the Chocolate – The Golden Egg Book – Free Online Book Club
- Freshly Planted – An Egg Is Quiet – Egg Identification Nature Bingo {Free Printable}