Little Spotted Christmas Kiwi

It is December and the festive season is upon us. Not surprisingly the kids are getting excited so I thought that we would do a New Zealand themed Christmas activity. Gina and Shanon’s Year One and Two class came to work with me in the art room today.

I love studying New Zealand birds and they are a great subject matter for kids to get enthused about. We have a eco-sanctuary called Zealandia in Wellington that houses native wildlife, particularly birds, with a focus on reintroducing species to the local area.

Zealandia has the second largest population of kiwi pukupuku (little spotted kiwi) in New Zealand and has the only wild population on the mainland. The little spotted kiwi are very cute and the students were immediately interested when I said we were learning to draw and paint them today. First up we learnt how to sketch out the shape of the kiwi by using a series of circles.

The students learnt to mix different shades of grey to create the kiwi. The students painted the body of the kiwi in a light grey first then blended white over the top to create the effect of feathers. They layered dark grey and black over the top of that using different sized brushes.

When the artworks were dry the students cut out their kiwi and added a festive, glittered Santa hat. There were a lot of different steps to follow today, I am so proud of how the students worked to finish their artworks. I love the little spotted Christmas kiwi pictures. Happy Holidays everyone!