Design a Critter

Time 45 minutes

Age 5 & up

Group Size 4 or more

Invent your own brand new animal and learn about characteristics of living things!

After being outside a few times, kids will know a lot more about the characteristics of the living things that inhabit their afterschool neighborhood. Focusing on what living things need (food, shelter/protection, methods of gathering food, etc.), this activity asks kids to invent a brand new creature that would be able to survive in the area around their afterschool. In the next activity, they have a chance to construct their new critter out of recycled material.

Preparation

Gather all materials. If you have the time, design and build your own new creature (see the “Build a Critter” activity for a suggested materials list).

Suggested Materials

Blank paper
Crayons, markers, or colored pencils

Make it Matter

Opening Discussion

Begin by having your kids list some of the things that live outside of your afterschool center. What do these animals have in common? What’s different about them? What are some of the things that all living creatures need? Make a list of any of these characteristics that your students come up with and record them on a chalkboard or piece of chart paper.

After this brief (no more than 5 minutes) discussion, and if you have created your own new critter, show it to your students. Point out its unique features (what it eats, how it eats, how it protects itself, etc.) and encourage them to ask questions about it. Then tell them that they will be creating their own new creatures and that they will make drawings of their animals first.

The Challenge

Invent your own new critter that could live near your afterschool!

Make it Happen

Doing the Activity

Divide your class into teams of 3 for this activity.
Teams will first need to consider a few questions about their new creature:
- How big is this critter?
- Where does this critter live (in the dirt, under the leaves, in trees, etc.)?
- How does it move around?
- What does this new critter eat?
- How does it gather or catch its food?
- Does anything eat their new critter?
- How does it protect itself?
- How does it reproduce (live babies or eggs)?
- What is this new critter called?
- Is it related to any other creatures that the class observed outside?

There are many other characteristics that students can come up with—challenge them to be as creative and thorough as possible because the other teams will be asking them questions about their new critter!

Make it Click

Let’s Talk About It

After 10–15 minutes, when each team has come up with some ideas about their new animals, gather the group together to talk about what they’ve done so far. What are they designing and what is it called? Is it similar to any animals that exist in your neighborhood? How did they choose to create what they did? Is there anything challenging about designing their creature? Encourage teams to ask questions of each other.

Make it Better

Build On What They Talked About

Send teams back to their designs. Tell them that they will need to create a drawing of their critter and that in the next session they will get to build a 3-D model of their 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. These will help to focus the teams on specific and detailed characteristics of their new critter.