A hand-painted birdhouse can make for an adorable Mother’s Day gift that your child will be proud of. This spring craft can be used as a decor item around the house or in the yard, or it can be attached to a tree for birds to use as a nesting box. What’s more? It is also an enjoyable way for your petit poussin to learn French at home!
What is a birdhouse in French? A birdhouse is un nichoir or un nichoir pour oiseaux.
Related: Teach children French while making pinecone birdfeeders
Art material in French
Set up the art material for them in advance, and point to all the items they have at their disposal for the project. We kept it simple, but you can use various natural materials such as moss, leaves, or pinecones and other options like buttons, popsicle sticks, or pipe cleaners.
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Paint pot – un pot de peinture
Paint brush – un pinceau
Glue – la colle
Scissors – une paire de ciseaux
Stapler – une agrafeuse
Colours in French
You can ask your child what colours they want in French, or if you’re introducing colours in French, you can point to the colours and say the French word out loud. We used the following ones.
Yellow – jaune
Blue – bleu
Green – vert
Pink – rose
Red – rouge
Parts of a house in French
Since a birdhouse has many components that resemble a house, you can talk about the basic parts of a house in French!
Roof – le toit
Wall – le mur
Floor – le sol
Entrance – l’entrée (f.)
Window – la fenêtre
And let’s not forget this very important part of a birdhouse, the perch.
Perch – le perchoir
The birdhouse painting activity
I did this activity with both my 2-year-old and 4.5-year-old, and they both had a great time. Tara, my little one, needed some help turning the house around and getting all the parts painted, but she chose the colours and artistic direction! Surya was able to do the entire craft on her own and had some very creative ideas, such as the design on the roof. Here are their finished products.
Is your child ready to learn French with this fun spring craft?
