feathers

Every year, the kindergarteners at Leah's school hold a pet show. For a few weeks prior, they have various pets as guests in their classroom to go along with a unit learning all about pets. 

However, for their pet show, each child has to create a pet made out of partly recycled materials - things you  just have around your house. Lucky for Leah, her mom (much to her dad's dismay) has a lot of craft stuff 'just lying around the house.' And we also had a water bottle, which is what Leah chose as the body.

I wanted to make this as much Leah's project as possible, so we started early (and had plenty of opportunities thanks to all those January snow/cold days!) and I asked a LOT of questions. Seriously, so many questions. But after all the questions, I feel confident knowing that this pet is, actually, what Leah had in mind, and that is a good feeling. 

I made Leah do the work that she could - she chose all colors, shapes and materials. She chose where to place everything. And she even finger painted the design onto the body of her animal (and she chose which paint colors went on different parts of the paper!). 

In the end, she chose a bird. She named him (her? I just realized we never asked!) feathers. She was adamant about the bird having square feet. She wanted purple wings - I drew probably 10 different wing designs and she chose her favorite. She wanted long legs and feathers on the top of the bird's head and googly eyes.

I was her hands, but this is Leah's creation!

Ironically, we got to school the day of her pet show and I realized that a majority of the pets had mom and dad written all over them. Leah's was definitely one of the most kindergarten-looking projects on the table. Ha!

All the children got up to introduce their pets. We recorded Leah's information on her switch. It said, "My name is Leah. This is my pet bird, feathers. It is the only bird known to have square feet." 

Each child received an award specific to their animal. Feathers obviously got the "Prettiest Feathers" award. I could not be prouder of Leah and her hard work!