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All About Parrots

There are more than 350 species of parrots. Students will learn about these intelligent social birds and design a textured collage.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

Steps

  • Step 1

    Parrots are in the Psittaciformes order, and are further subdivided into three superfamilies: Psittacoidae, Cacatuoidea, and Strigopoidea. They are found mainly in warm climates of the southern hemisphere but also live in the wild in some northern areas. Have students explore some facts about various types of parrots such as macaws, cockatoos, cockatiels, parakeets, African greys, conures, and others. For example, they are known for their intelligence, which may be a reason for their longevity since animals with larger brains tend to live longer. Most birds have four toes, but parrots are zygodactyl, meaning they have two toes in front and two in back (rather than three in front and one in the back) for optimum grip. And it is believed that they originated on the supercontinent of Gondwana before it broke apart.

  • Step 2

    Have students choose a type of parrot to depict in a textured collage. They can draw the parrot's body on one piece of heavy paper and the two wings on another. They can outline and cut out the parrot's curved beak on a portion of the heavy paper. Next, they can color light construction paper using various colors that represent their chosen parrot, then cut these into strips. Additionally, they can cut slits into these strips to give it a feathery effect. 

  • Step 3

    Ask students to arrange and glue the body, wings, and beak on a piece of construction paper and then glue the feathery strips to the image.

  • Step 4

    Have students present their art and discuss some of the facts they learned about these beautiful and colorful birds.

Standards

Adaptations