Explore science concept of plant adaptation through cactus!
Make one of these cactus craft and share ideas of its adaptation with your children. Most activities listed here are appropriate for those above 4 years old.
Some questions/pointers to introduce to children…
– Cacti are one of the common plants in desert
– Describe the conditions of desert (learning opportunities to expand vocabulary, eg hot, dry, arid, sandy)
– Challenges of desert climate (lack of water to support/sustain life)
– Describe a cactus (thick, fleshy stem, green stem, spines/thorns/thin and sharp leaves)
– Extend discussion with adaptation of desert animals, e.g camel
BBC KS3 Bitesize has a good resource to facilitate learning on this.
Which of these are you gonna make?
1. Painted rock cactus
Collect some pebbles and get down to painting them green with some patterns as the thorns.
Place them in pots with soil…
or a pot containing smaller pebbles,
or cans of marbles..
Voila- the painted pebbles have been transformed into cactus!
2. Popsicle stick cactus
If you have spare popsicle sticks lying around, here are some ideas to make cactus from them.
Put them upright…
Or lay them flat…
3. Hand-print cactus
Get your hand dirty, literally, with some hand-printed cactus.
4. Balloon cactus
Tape a few pieces of yellow and green balloons of different sizes together.
5. Toothpick
Toothpicks can be used to represent the spines. So, why not add toothpick to your drawing…
or to modge-painted Styrofoam ball…
6. Card-stitching cactus
Template provided by Handmade Charlotte with easy, simple stitch for the thorns of the cactus.
7. Cactus pen-holder
Make your cactus for creative use, for example, as a pen holder.
8. Paper craft cactus
Plenty of variations for paper craft cactus and with template provided. Cut, colour and fix them up. Easy peasy!
Template by The House that Lars Built with instructions here.
You can also get template from Good To Know with instructions here.
Make spiny cactus with template and instructions from Vashechudo.
Watercolour paper cacti with template from Think Make Share and instructions here.
Paper Mache Cacti on Styrofoam piece by Design Sponge.
Simple paper cactus by Henrietta & Clementine.
9. Fork pattern
Use a fork to paint over the cactus cut-out to represent the needle-like leaves.
10. Using wire from old clothes hanger
Unwind them, then twist and turn it into cactus. Then, add some ribbons to represent the spines. Pretty, aren’t they?
