Learning About Bird Feathers: Explore, Color, and Label Free Printable

We have been doing a lot of bird watching and using lots of feathers with all our Thanksgiving crafting. Since my kids love feeling feathers in their hand and are constantly holding them or brushing them across their face I thought it would be fun to do some hands on exploring while also learning about the parts of a feather with a color and label free printable.

This activity is perfect in fall when the trees are bare and birds are easier to see and fun in spring when the birds return and start making nests.

Since birds are the only animals with feathers here are 14 more Bird Crafts & Activities that are perfect to go along with this feather activity.

Feather Sensory Bin and Hands on Exploration

Supplies:
Different types of feathers: I recommend using store bought feathers or making sure to clean the feathers before giving them to kids because birds can carry diseases. Here are some feather packs like the ones we used (affiliate links): Peacock Feathers, Feather Assortment, Ostrich Feathers, Pheasant Feathers.

Magnify glass

Flashlight

Light table (We used our homemade mini light table)

Directions:

1. Put different types of feathers in a bin and let children explore.

My kid’s came up with all sorts of things to do with the feathers. They started out with checking them out under light and magnification, and then letting them fall to the ground, and finally using the large feathers to fan the smaller feathers off the table. We had feathers flying everywhere and my two little kids were uncontrollably laughing–perfect! :). After they had played for awhile we talked about how well the feathers were able to move air which helps birds fly.

Feather Craft & Scissor Practice

As we learned about feathers we made some beautiful paper feathers while improving scissor skills. All the directions can be found here: Paper Feathers Crafft

Learning About the Parts of a Feather

There are several parts of a feather with funny names that I decided not to include on the printable. The ones I did include I thought were most important to talk about. I wanted my kid’s to notice that the feathers barbs hook together making the feather better at pushing against air for flight. I wanted them to notice the shaft which looks similar to a leaf. I wanted them to notice the bottom afterfeathers that are fluffy because they don’t have hooks on them to keep them together, and to be able to name the quill which my daughter immediately wanted to write with after learning its name (so I guess you can figure out what we did next :).

Supplies:
Parts of a feather printable (available to download at the bottom of this post)
Scissors
Glue
Crayons or markers

Directions:
1. Have child color the feather, cut out the labels at the bottom of the page and glue them on the correct line.