Children can snip, snip away to create a scaly little paper crocodile. This simple craft is from Paper Scissors Glue, by Ryland Peters & Small and written by Catherine Woram, a London mom of two daughters. While we might not see any in Michigan, this croc will be right at home in your kid’s room!
Materials
- Plain paper for template
- Template (click here to download the crocodile template)
- Pencil Scissors (the smaller/more-pointed, the better)
- One piece of color cardstock paper (green – or whatever you please)
- Two googly eyes
- Plain white glue
- White paint
- Fine paintbrush
Directions
- After you’ve clicked the image at right, to download the template, print it out on a place of plain paper. Cut it out with scissors.
- Fold the color cardstock in half lengthwise and draw around the template using a pencil. Make sure the croc’s “back” is positioned along the fold.
- Snip around the shape of the crocodile’s body, as drawn.
- Along the back, create a spiky “spine” effect by drawing six evenly spaced pencil lines at a 45-degree angle to the ridge of the spine. Snip along the lines, through the fold. (Smaller scissors give better control.)
- Open the crocodile flat. The cuts will have created six triangular shapes. Fold these back on themselves, exposing the triangle-shaped holes, and press flat with your finger.
- Fold the croc back in half again, so the now-knobbly spines stand up all the way along its back.
- Finish off by gluing a googly eye to each side of the croc’s face. Use the paintbrush to stroke on his teeth with white paint (sketch it with pencil, first, if you’d rather).
