Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Martians landed at Cione Recreation Center this week and what a wide variety of alien lifeforms we encountered. Students drafted their own unique extraterrestrial visitors. Some of their creations had more than two eyes, many arms and most of the aliens had very pointy teeth.
Filling in the black box on a newspaper print out students tested their initial concept drawings of martians. The newspaper cover format also prompted some students to not just imagine what a martian might look like, but to also envision how they would arrive on earth. One student gave their creature a hover board.
After students had spent about half the class period on the first worksheet we then moved on to making a martian ‘big mouth’. This is a simple project that younger students love because of the surprise of unfolding the paper to reveal their character’s BIG mouth.
Just take a standard sheet of paper and fold it in half. Then fold one side in half again, essentially folding the paper into thirds. Some students were familiar with this project so I asked them to demonstrate the folding process for the class. I jump at these opportunities for students to practice being the teacher. It’s a great way for them to feel invested in the class and to appreciate the responsibility of leading a group.
So, once the paper was folded accordingly we drew the top of our alien on the section above the folded piece. Then we drew the bottom of the alien’s head and its’ body on the folded piece. When the paper was opened the top and bottom needed to connect as well as the top and bottom of the alien’s mouth. The students loved making their aliens as strange as possible. They did not hold back on adding every detail they could possibly think of!
This student’s martian had a SECOND mouth inside of its first mouth!