When studying habitats and adaptations, it’s fun to make little animals to include in your habitat diorama. There’s lots of ways to make one, using whatever materials you may have access to at home.

Clothespin Critters

You can use clothespins, pipe cleaners, cardstock, googly eyes and pompoms to make lots of different types of creatures. Here are some we have made – check out the turtle who pokes his head out of his shell when you open the clothespin!

I have pinned lots of other ideas, shown in this picture, on my Pinterest page at www.pinterest.com/bcparented/clothespin-creatures/)

Junk Drawer Critters

You can just rummage through drawers, see what you find, and let it inspire you. I had a popsicle stick – added binder clips for legs – I had two clips, so four legs, so it must be a mammal. A broken bit of tape measure made a nice neck, a discarded lid for the head. The bread fastener looked like a horse’s or donkey’s snout. I had a broken fork tine for an ear so it must be a donkey – I broke a tine off another fork for the other ear, found an odd bundle of twist ties for a tail, and a googly eye that had fallen off one an old craft project… and poof, it’s a little donkey! (You may ask why I’ve got all that junk in drawers, and I can’t tell you. But the drawers are cleaner now!)

And here’s what my co-teacher found at her house: paper plates, CD’s, streamers, Easter Eggs… and a bird pattern she made from paper

This is a fun exercise in creativity. What materials can you find in your drawers and what will they inspire your child to make?

Folded Paper Critters

My co-teacher created these great little critters with just paper, scissors and markers. When you unfold them, you discover something hiding inside!

Step 1: Take paper and fold it to the back and then to the front as shown in the pics.

Step 2: Now draw a critter of your choice on the folded paper and then unfold the paper to draw the inside part

Step 3: Color the Critter and cut the corners, if needed. Cutting is completely optional.

I’d love to see what ideas other people come up with about what animals would be fun to make using this technique – what all could be hidden inside the fold, I wonder.