Masks of animals such as crocodiles can be an interesting project for your child.
Children enjoy learning about animals that live in different environments. Whether the animals live in the jungle, on the farm, or in the woods, children are fascinated with the variety of creatures in the world. Let your kids create groups of animals from all over the world to decorate their rooms. Use various types of papers and common household items to make an assortment of fun projects.
Finger Puppets
Create a troupe of animal finger puppets and put on a puppet show. Introduce animals from various environments. Create pigs, lions, deer and alligator finger puppets from various colored papers. Make two legs by winding paper in cylinders around the fingers and cut flat bodies and heads into rounded and oblong shapes. Glue them together and add arms, faces and features such as ears and tails with different colored papers. Add googly eyes and draw on additional facial features with crayons, colored pencils or markers.
Masks
Download mask templates to make a menagerie of animal masks. Make bears, lions, pigs, crocodiles, cats and dogs from colored card stock. Print the black-and-white mask images onto colored card stock to match the animal. Cut out the mask and eyes. Use markers or crayons to add facial features. Alternatively, print the mask on white card stock and paint the mask with tempera or acrylic paints. Staple a length of elastic to fit around your child's head to either side of the mask, level with the eyes.
Mobiles
Make farm animals and a barn to hang from a mobile. Use a template from the Internet and print out a sheep, cow, chicken and pig, as well as a barn. The images are black-and-white and fold in half to make dimensional figures. Color or paint the figures and the barn and hang with string from a cardboard paper towel tube or around a plastic lid. Alternatively, hang the folded figures over a length of yarn or cord and stretch across a window or bulletin board for display. Stand these figures to add to a diorama.
Wall Decor
Go on safari and make a wall arrangement of animals from paper plates and assorted scraps of paper, pasta and common household items. Create monkeys, giraffes, bears, lions, and elephants using a paper plate as the head and painting with tempera paint. Then add ears, noses and mouths with pieces of construction paper or card stock. Paint on some facial features and use bottle caps for noses, cotton balls for fur, macaroni for a mane and a paper towel tube for a trunk. Attach a string to the back and hang on the wall.
