Canada Goose in Flight

My friend Brenda (of meteorite fame) was recently at my house for a marathon craft day. She's a middle school English teacher who will also be teaching one period of art this semester. She spent the day working on lesson plans and making samples. Among the materials she brought was a well-worn Canada goose craft from her days teaching elementary in the 90's. She is planning to adapt it for her middle-schoolers. I did my own adaptation.

This is mine: 

This is Brenda's original:

Her goose started with the two main body parts cut from a manila folder. She used a black marker to color the head and tail, then a brown crayon to color the top half of the body. She cut white paper to make the belly and the marking on the face. Then she tore pieces of brown construction paper and glued them to the back and wings. 

I started by using scratch paper to make a template for the two body parts. I wanted to be able to cut them from a single sheet of 12x12 black cardstock. (Affiliate links here and below). When I got them the size and shape I wanted, I traced my templates with a white colored pencil and then cut the pieces out. 

I flipped the cut pieces over (so that any stray colored pencil marks wouldn't show). Then I used Folk Art acrylic to paint the belly and part of the face white. 

While that was drying, I tore some brown packing material into strips. Gotta love free craft supplies! I used a brown ink pad to swipe ink along the left side of each strip. Then I started tearing the strips to make the individual feathers for the wing. I glued them in place with tacky glue. 

I finished up the wing, then added feathers to the goose's back. This is how the two pieces looked when I was done. 

All that was left was to glue the wing piece onto the body, then add a googly eye. 

I've shared a Canada goose project before - way back in 2014. It was Trevor's choice for G in our Cursive Project. Good memories.