Paper Crocodile Craft – A Bask Of Crocodiles

A few weeks back I was hanging out with my girls discussing the Collective Nouns for Crocodiles (along with a few other animals) and the cool paper crocodile craft we were going to make. We’d decided to make paper crocodiles because of the amazing sparkly disco croc Ro made a year ago when they were reading Krindlekrax. We were also inspired by some cute alligators we saw over at Krokotak.

For more Collective Noun Crafts  have a look at our Colony Of Ants Craft.

It turns out that a group of crocs is called a Bask or less commonly a Float.  Crocodiles are cold-blooded animals so in order to warm themselves up they need to lie in the sun which is called ‘basking’… and the good old crocodile loves to bask. It’s a very social time for them and you’ll find large groups of crocs basking in the sun together. When they get too hot they open their mouths just like a dog does when it’s panting.

To Make A Paper Crocodile You Will Need

• A4 or As Paper – any colour can be used, plain or patterned (our favourite is glitter paper).
• White printer paper
• Scissors
• Clear sellotape
• Stick glue
• Ruler (optional)
• Paper clips (optional – they can help secure the paper whilst the glue dries)
• HB Pencil
• Sticky eyes, googly eyes
• Black pen to draw the teeth and eyes

The first thing you need to do to make your paper crocodile is cut your paper into eight equal strips. The easiest way to do this is to fold the paper in half and cut along the crease. Then, fold each of those pieces in half and cut along their crease and finally fold these pieces of cut paper in half again, and cut along the crease.

Next, take five of the strips, fold them in half and cut along the crease.

Take one of these small pieces and curl it around to make a paper link. Butt the ends up against each other (do not over lap).

Use sellotape to secure in place.

Thread another of these smaller pieces of card through the link you’ve just made and secure in place with sellotape. Keep doing this until you have linked nine pieces of paper. You can carefully twist the link around so the sellotape doesn’t show on the end.

Take on of the three remaining longer pieces of card and thread that through and end link and secure in place with the stick glue. Use a paper clip to hold the card in place until the glue bonds if you need to.

Cut the edges of the card, up to the glue join, to taper into a tail shape.

Take one of the smaller pieces of card you have left and cut it in half lengthways. Cut some spiky claws on the ends of each piece and slide through the bottom of the each end like the photo below.

Take another of the large paper strips and fold it around the link at the opposite end to the tail to make a mouth. Cut another of the smaller card pieces lengthways, round off the ends and glue the strip underneath the top of the mouth bending the rounded ends up to make eyes.

Cut two cm strips off the top of the printer paper (along the width). This will make the teeth. You can either cut jagged teeth by hand using the scissors or draw a line of jagged teeth to cut out.

Glue them into the mouth.

After reading up on the Crocodile Ro looks up at me with a serious face and says …

“They’re really boring collective noun names for the poor old Crocodile! They deserve something much more interesting and fun, like… err … like … SNAP!” Yes, a sSnap of crocodiles that sounds much more interesting than a Bask or Float.”

So we now have a new ‘unofficial’ collective noun term that I think works just as well as bask!

There are lots more Collective Noun Crafts you can make. Look out for the #CollectiveNoundCrats hashtag and you’ll find lost of other posts. It’s a great fun way to teach children about Collective nouns.

‘Mosswood Connections’ has an adorable ‘Brood of Chickens” you can make (with a free printable) and ‘To Be A Kid Again’ has the cutest ‘Paddling Of Ducks‘