Tuesday Craft: Quetzal Toilet Paper Roll Craft

Although a little nontraditional, this craft should be quite fun. This one I found at About.com

Those of you who have knowledge of Guatemala know that the Quetzal is Guatemala’s national bird (and the name of the money) . It lives in Central and South America and is near extinction. In ancient times, Aztec and Mayan people loved the beautiful feathers of this colorful bird. The feathers served as symbols of wealth and status.

Quetzal craft
Materials:
a toilet paper roll,
printer,
glue,
scissors,
something to color with
paper

Instructions:
Print out the template of choice.

Color the pieces as appropriate and cut them out. (You may want to peek at the color template to see what color everything is. The wings are green and brown, the body and head are green, the chest is red and the tail is green tipped with blue)

Glue the large rectangular piece around the toilet paper tube.

Glue tail onto the back of the tp roll. I glued it to the inside back and then folded it upward a bit so it would sit flat on the shelf. I think it looks nice that way, but be creative.. you could also hang the tail down over the side or back of the shelf.

Glue the head onto the front of the tp roll.

Glue the wings onto the side of the tp roll (this is how I’d intended… like the bird is sitting down with its wings folded) or make it look like the Quetzal is flying by gluing the wings onto the back of the roll (some kids prefer their birds “in action”).

Fold the feet and glue the tabs to the inside of the tube.

Template (main) (color) or (B&W)
Template (wings) (color) or (B&W)

Printable version of these instructions