Growing Creatures - SURPRISE your Students with them!

Growing creatures are one of my favorite things to start the year with because the students are always amazed by them!  You can find smaller growing creatures at dollar stores or on-line, but I really love the bigger ones!  These can be found as alligators, lizards, or snakes.  Since our school mascot is the gator, I hunt for the alligators at my local Dollar Tree.  They usually have them in stock!

These things get HUGE!  One of the biggest challenges is in finding a large enough container to hold the creature as it is growing!  We have used clear aquariums, but we typically use a really large clear plastic tub.  The tub is about 4 feet long and 2 feet tall!  

You can grab a pack for growing the alligators from my TPT store for just $2.00!  Click here to check it out!

We have also used growing creatures as a schoolwide STEM challenge.  I give each classroom a growing creature and the lab pack shown below.  Click here to check out this lab pack.

The classrooms love to compete with each other to see who can grow the largest creature!  For these I use the smaller growing creatures, but you can definitely use the larger ones, too!  Grab the smaller growing creatures on Amazon, ebay, or Oriental Trading Company if you want to set this up as a schoolwide challenge.

Grow some fun in your classroom this year!