Build a Critter

Art Science
Time 1 hour
Age 7 & up
Group Size 4 or more
Tags Animals, Living Things

Time to bring your new critter to life!

Focusing on characteristics of living things (food, shelter/protection, methods of gathering food, etc), this activity gives kids a chance to construct a 3-D model of the living things that they invented in the “Design a Critter” activity. Students will have an opportunity to practice observation and problem solving skills as well as tool use and materials manipulation. And, they get to be creative!

Preparation

This activity is a follow-up to the Design a Critter activity. Make sure you have completed that activity before trying this one.

Gather all materials. Make sure you have storage space available—this may take more than one session.

Build a Critter
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Suggested Materials

  • Blank paper and construction paper
  • Crayons, markers or colored pencils
  • Recycled material (foam, cardboard, yogurt containers—anything!)
  • Pipe cleaners, string, paper clips, brass fasteners and other miscellaneous materials
  • Paint
  • Glue guns, glue sticks, other adhesives
  • Tape (masking, clear, duct, etc.)
  • Scissors
  • Utility knife (for the program leader)
1

Make it Matter

Opening Discussion

Ask your students to think about the creatures they designed in the Design a Critter activity. Do they remember all of the different characteristics about their animals? Hopefully they wrote it all down and can refer to their notes. Remind them that they will now get a chance to build a model of their new living thing out of recycled material.

The Challenge

You’ve invented your own new critter that could live near your afterschool—now build it!

2

Make it Happen

Doing the Activity

  1. Have your class work in the same teams as they did in the last session.
  2. Teams should refer to their drawings and the characteristics they decided upon.
  3. Show your students the recycled materials that you have gathered for this activity. Have teams brainstorm which of these materials they might use before they actually gather the items. Stress to the class that they should not just grab everything, but only the materials they plan on using.
  4. Have each team choose 1 student as the materials manager, and have the materials managers come up and gather the materials to bring back to their teams.
  5. Time to build!
3

Make it Click

Let’s Talk About It

After 10-15 minutes, when each team has begun construction, gather them all together to talk about what they have done so far. Is there anything challenging about building their creature? Did any of the materials give them ideas about how to build their critter? Encourage teams to ask questions of each other.

4

Make it Better

Build On What They Talked About

Send teams back to their creations. When they are done and all the pain has dried, have each team present their critter to the rest of the class. Encourage the other children to ask questions about the characteristics and behavior of this new animal.

Suggestions

  • Pay close attention to team dynamics. Are all ideas being heard?
  • An important question to continue asking is “Could this critter live outside of our afterschool center?” If, for instance, a team is designing an animal that swims and you aren’t near any water, then they should reconsider their design. Or, if the animal is 20-stories tall and you live in a dense city—their critter may have problems adapting. Lead these discussions through thoughtful questions and, if possible, with the other teams chiming in. It also helps to remind them of the living things they DID find outside when they explored near the afterschool—things like insects, arachnids (like spiders) and worms can provide the basis for their thinking.
  • As you move from team to team while they are working, keep referring to the list of questions under Make it Happen – Doing the Activity, #2 in the Design a Critter activity. These will help to focus the teams on specific and detailed characteristics of their new critter. You could also ask teams if anything changed from the time that they designed and drew their critter to now. What was it about the construction process or the materials they had to use that caused them to make changes?
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