Alligator Craft

What You Need:

• Clothespin
• Pen
• Markers
• Paper
• Hole puncher
• Glue

What You Do:

1. Hand your child a clothespin and a black pen.
2. With his black pen, have him add zigzagging triangles to the sides and front of his clothespin (About eight on the sides and four in the front).
3. With that same black pen, have him carefully fill in the gaps between triangles so that his clothespin alligator has ten teeth pointing downwards on top and ten teeth pointing upwards on the bottom.
4. Run a red marker along the top and bottom of the mouth to create gums for your child’s alligator.
5. Help hold your child’s clothespin open long enough for your child to colour the inside of the alligator’s mouth red.
6. Now hand your child a piece of paper.
7. With a hole puncher, have your child punch out two holes from the paper. These will serve as the alligator’s eyes.
8. With a black pen, add in the pupils to the two eyes punched out of the paper.
9. Carefully add a little glue to the back of each eye and set them at the top of the clothespin, near the back of the alligator’s mouth.
10. Near the front of the alligator’s mouth, add two small nostrils that will serve as the alligator’s nose.
11. Behind the eyes and along the length of the rest of the clothespin, draw in tiny scales that will serve as the alligator’s body.
12. And last but not least, allow your child to finish his alligator craft off by coloring his clothespin green with a marker.

Your child now has a nifty little clothespin creation that can serve as a reminder of the powerful strength contained in an alligator’s jaw. In the same way that it takes a little more effort to open a clothespin than to shut it, an alligator's dangerous mouth also snaps shut more easily than it opens. Can your child find any other similarities between his recycled creation and an alligator?