D and I met up with some friends visiting from out of town today, and they have two kids. What balloon can you make when aren’t sure what to make? Penguins! Everyone loves penguins!
This penguin design is a pretty good design for beginners. You don’t need to worry about making sure you inflate/twist the balloons exactly the right length because you won’t use the entire balloon.
You will need three balloons – a black 260, a white 260, and an orange 260. I also used a blue 160 scrap for a bow-tie.
Check out this video from the Twister Sisters to learn how to make this penguin!
This hummingbird has a very similar design to the butterfly. I saw this design in Marvin Hardy’s Advanced 260 Balloon Magic book.
The hummingbird is easier to make than the butterfly. There is one less twist for the wings. You’ll leave a couple inches of uninflated balloon for the beak.
In the picture is a blue hummingbird made with a 260 balloon and a second smaller pink one made using half of a 160 balloon.
This parrot (sitting on a perch) is one of my favorite one-balloon animals to make. It is fast (faster than the dog!) and easy – only requiring about 4 twists, and looks very much like a parrot. If the outside loop (perch) is too small, you can have a kid wear it so that it looks like the parrot is sitting on the kid’s arm/shoulder. Just twist the balloon so that the bird is not in the circle and have a kid put his or her arm through the loop (with the bird sitting on top.)
Yesterday was my last SS class with the 4-5 year olds – they’ll be moving on to the Kindergarten class next week! They have grown so much! I made the birds above as a little gift.
Last Day of SS We didn’t have a formal lesson, so I made up some different activities. After a review game, I talked about God’s creation and showed some pictures I had taken recently of some plants and insects, as well as pictures of my family (they happened to be in the same pile and the kids were interested,) and ended with a picture of the class.
Afterward, I brought out the balloons and made a couple simple animals, which the kids enjoyed. (Some of the kids started repeating “I want a ….” so I put the balloons away. My funny assistant replied “I want a hamburger” making the kids laugh.) I asked if they thought these animals I just made were special, and they said yes, as expected. Then, I reminded them that God created each of them and they were all super special!
Bluebirds and duck
Making the birds You’ll need one 160 and one 260. I followed the directions by Twistina.(Really nice instructions and photos!) It took longer than I expected. Adding detail, such as the legs and beak, adds more time, but they sure do look really nice and colorful. It ended up taking me about 15 minutes a bird after I got the hang of it (and some popped balloons.) I was excited to use my 160s for the first time.
I simplified the design of some of the birds: I didn’t add the pinch twist at the tail for some. Also, if I had just the right amount of air left after forming the head, I didn’t break off the last bit of the balloon. I would hide that last air bubble inside the body, or make it into a little chin under the beak, which also looks pretty cool.
Birds packed up for transport
To make the eyes: I drew eyes with regular markers on the leftover white part of a sticker sheet and then cut them out. I added a little color to some of the eyes (although you probably can’t see it in the picture.) You can draw the eyes directly onto the balloon with a Sharpie, but I liked the look of having the white part of the eyes. You can also add eyebrows or eyelashes.
I made all the birds the day before, as I knew I wouldn’t have time to make them all during class (about 12-15 kids).
The birdies here are all packed up and ready to go, and they each survived the trip just fine.
