DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Phoenix or Firebird Paper Craft

This phoenix is a simple cut and paste paper craft that is fun for young children to make.  It makes a great project for preschool and kindergarten kids and works well with various fantasy books or a Greek mythology theme.

There is a small (single page) and larger (four templates) version to choose from.

In Greek mythology, the phoenix was a bird that lived in Arabia.  Each morning the phoenix would awake and bath in a well near its roost.  While it bathed, it sang a beautiful song that the sun god Apollo stopped to hear each dawn before he drove his sun chariot across the sky.

According to the myth, only one phoenix existed on earth at a time.  When it grew old, the phoenix would build a nest of myrrh.  The phoenix would settle its tired, aging body into the center of the nest which would burst into flames when the sun rose.  The phoenix would be consumed by the flames and from the ashes of the ancient bird, a new phoenix would be reborn.

Materials:

• something to color with if using the B&W version,
• scissors,
• glue, and
• paper,
• You can use brass fasteners ("brads") instead of glue to attach the wings if you want them to be moveable.

Instructions:

• Print out the template of choice.
• Color (where appropriate).
• Cut out the template pieces -- parents can help cut out some of the more difficult pieces like the wings while children work on the easier pieces like the body and tail.
• Glue the phoenix together in the following order:
  • Glue the head onto the top of the body (the body looks like an egg, the top is the fatter part)
  • Glue the feet onto the bottom of the body (the body looks like an egg, the bottom is the thinner part)
  • Glue the wings on the back of the body
  • assemble the tail:
    • Glue the middle section onto the bottom section of the tail
    • Glue the top section onto the top of those
      OR
    • instead of using the template, you can make a fan from orange or red paper and glue that to the body as a tail.
  • See picture on the template for further help.

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Small Template (only 1 template needed)

Template:       (color)   or   (B&W)

Large Template (4 templates needed)

Template 1    (color)   or   (B&W)

Template 2    (color)   or   (B&W)

Template 3    (color)   or   (B&W)

Template 4    (color)   or   (B&W)

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