Bird Spotting In The Congo - How To Make A Bird Mask

A few weeks ago Emmy discovered Um Bongo juice, she was drawn to the colourful carton and loves mixed fruit drinks so it quickly became her new favourite drink. Of course, it was impossible to give to her without singing the song and she wanted to learn it herself. Thankfully for us, the words are written on the carton and it took her only 2 days to learn it by heart.

Now she sings this ALL the time and even plans to do a show at school for show and tell this week, it’s very cute and I plan to capture on video when she stops being too shy and stops as soon as the camera is out.

It has led to lots of conversations about animals which live in the Congo – of course, there are the ones in the song: Hippo, Rhino, Python, Marmoset and Parrot as well as opening up discussions on what these animals eat and the climate they live in.

I love anything which will provoke fun learning for the children and especially love to hear them interested in a subject because it interests them and not because they have to learn it in school. After letting Emmy find pictures of the animals on my tablet we set about making some using our craft supplies.

Table of Contents

How to make a Parrot mask:

You will need:

Paper plate
Glue
Coloured paper
Scissors
Yellow card
Lolly stick
Cellotape
Feathers

To Make:

Cut the edging away from a paper plate to leave only the circle shape

Turn over to use the underside, cover in glue and stick on your coloured paper (you could also use white paper and colour it in)

Cut out 2 eye shapes

Fold the yellow card in half and cut a triangle shape along the fold to make a beak and glue it into place

Turn over and Cellotape the feathers to the top of the mask

Tape a lolly stick to the bottom so you can hold your mask

You can then make binoculars using 2 toilet rolls decorated and taped together, add a string to these and you are ready for a spot of bird spotting in the Congo.

And if you now currently have the song stuck in your head, here are the lyrics just for you:

Way down deep in the middle of the Congo,
A hippo took an apricot, a guava and a mango.
He stuck it with the others, and he danced a dainty tango.
The rhino said, “I know, we’ll call it Um Bongo”
Um Bongo, Um Bongo, They drink it in the Congo.
The python picked the passion fruit, the marmoset the mandarin.
The parrot painted packets, that the whole caboodle landed in.
So when it comes to sun and fun and goodness in the jungle,
They all prefer the sunny funny one they call Um Bongo!