Sometimes the best projects are the ones created together 💛
Together with my daughter’s class, we decided to make something truly special – and that’s how this giant owl came to life! It now proudly decorates the school hallway, brightening everyone’s day.
Each student had an important role: to color and cut out their feathers. Thanks to that, every part of the owl is different – full of color, patterns, and imagination!
Once all the feathers were ready, we glued them onto a large cardboard base, layer by layer, creating a soft, fluffy look.
The eyes were made from paper plates, and the beak and claws were cut out of orange cardstock.
The result? A huge, vibrant owl that instantly catches the eye and makes everyone smile 😍
It wasn’t just an art project – it was also a great lesson in teamwork and creativity.
Each feather was a small contribution to something truly big – just like in everyday school life!
✂️ Materials
- Feather templates printed on white and colored paper – you can use only white, but then all feathers will need to be colored. We used some pre-colored paper too, since we only had one lesson to complete the owl.
- Markers
- Scissors
- 2 paper plates
- Black and orange cardstock
- Glue
- Large piece of cardboard (for example, from a big box)
- Feather template – we downloaded ours from eslvault.com. The exact template we used can be found here.
🦉 Giant Owl – Step by Step
1. Prepare the feathers
Each student gets a few feather outlines to decorate. They can be patterned any way you like – stripes, dots, geometric shapes, or colorful gradients.
2. Cut out the feathers
Once decorated, the feathers are cut out carefully with scissors.
3. Prepare the base
Use a large piece of cardboard as your owl’s base. You can cut it roughly into an owl shape, but it’s not necessary – the feathers will define the form.
4. Make the eyes
Use paper plates for the background and glue black cardstock circles in the center – you’ll get big, expressive “owl eyes.”
5. Add the beak and claws
Cut them out of orange cardstock and glue them in place.
6. Arrange the feathers
As the students finish their feathers, start laying them out on the cardboard.
We arranged them by color: green shades around the eyes, red, brown, and orange on the body, yellow at the bottom, and pink, purple, and blue on the wings.
7. Glue the feathers
The easiest way is to start gluing from the bottom, layering feathers upward to create a fluffy texture.
We actually started from the center, but in that case, you need to glue only the lower parts of each feather so that the next layers can slide slightly underneath.
🌈 The Giant Owl Is Ready!
The finished owl looks truly spectacular – especially since every feather is different and unique.
It’s a perfect classroom art project: simple, colorful, and full of joy.
Most of all, it teaches teamwork, patience, and the magic of creating something together.
Check out our ideas
If you are looking for other Halloween DIY then you will find it in the Halloween section.
You can find more DIY decoration ideas in our decorations section.
You can find more ideas for playing with children in the DIY with children section.
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Nothing gives more satisfaction than doing something yourself. I haven’t even thought about DIY as my hobby, I’ve just done different “projects” when it was needed. Sometimes it’s a disguise for the Masquerade Party in kindergarten. Another time, cutting out the pumpkin and baking the witch’s fingers for Haloween. Or simply organizing holiday souvenirs. Now I decided to share my realizations with you. Let’s go it together!
