Birthday Birds on Their Way

I love community artworks and artworks that celebrate community and am always on the lookout for activities that are fun for children to do and also help bring people together.  When I saw these birthday birds last year on the New City Arts Blog I loved it so much and knew right away I would implement something similar at my schools.  It took us a while to get started, but this year fifth and sixth graders created, and then glazed this massive number of birds.  Instead of taking their little creations home, they set them aside to give to students on their birthday this year.

Above you can see the birds fresh from their bisque fire.  

And here we are glazing them.

Here's a box of glazed birds fresh out of the kiln.

Initially I had hoped to share the birds with the whole school, but after considering more carefully decided to begin this new tradition with the older grades this year (4, 5, 6, 7, 8).  This way, we will have birds left over at the end of the year to celebrate with until a new batch can be made.  Next year we will extend the giving to include all our students.

We've already begun passing out our birds and the children are so excited to come up and choose their bird in their birthday week.  So thanks again to Shanna at New City Arts, one of my favorite art blogs.  Check it out.