Design, create, and paint your own fantasy creature using paper maché and recycled materials.

• 1.

  Discuss with your classmates the characteristics that make animals and/or people unique. You may wish to make a list of these features using Crayola® Erasable Colored Pencils.

• 2.

  What characteristics could you combine to make a truly unusual creature, such as an alien or fantasy animal. What could be different about facial features, body parts, posture, hair and skin colors, and other characteristics? Choose at least one point of interest, something that is very different from anything that exists. You may wish to sketch your imaginary creature so you have a plan.

• 3.

  Cover your work area with newspaper. Choose a recycled box as a base for building your 3-dimensional creature. Attach various-sized cardboard rolls and/or other boxes to your base with Crayola School Glue. Dry.

• 4.

  To prepare to cover your creature with paper maché, tear newspaper into narrow strips. Combine equal parts of glue with water. Dip the newspaper strips into the glaze, and use your fingers to wipe away excess glue.

• 5.

  Cover your base with one or two layers of paper maché. Dry. Continue adding one or two more layers and drying after each until your creature is well covered.

• 6.

  Paint your creature with Crayola So Big Brushes and Crayola Washable Paint. Dry.

• 7.

  Glue on decorative craft items such as yarn, feathers, or buttons to make your creature one of a kind. Dry.

Standards

• LA: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
• LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
• LA: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
• SS: Explore factors that contribute to one's personal identity such as interests, capabilities and perceptions.
• SS: Analyze a particular event to identify reasons individuals might respond to it in different ways.
• VA: Use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner.
• VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.
• VA: Select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning.

Adaptations

• Individually, students can write an introduction for their alien characters. In this writing piece, students provide background information about the alien, where it comes from, what a typical day in the life of this alien is like, and why it is visiting our neighborhood. This can be posted in the classroom for viewing.
• In small groups, students can introduce their aliens. The members of the group discuss how these aliens can discuss the similarities and differences between their aliens. Student discussion should also include how these aliens could co-exist while showing respect for the similarities and differences of each. How will they treat each other? Do the different visual appearances of each alien make you treat it differently? Should this be so? What can you do a s an individual or community to overcome these different treatment approaches?
• Students write a story about a day in the life of their aliens in their home environment. Included could be where and how it lives, daily activities and adventures, family life, etc. This story can be audio taped and uploaded to a classroom computer. The audio file can be attached to a digital picture of the student and his alien project.