Have students create an alligator habitat on a bulletin board. Allow students to draw or paint a few alligators to hang on the board. Encourage students to add other elements to the alligators' habitat such as a river, marsh, pond, vegetation, food sources, land suited for building a burrow and anything else alligators need. Encourage students to write "Did You Know?" facts on index cards or labels explaining why alligators need certain items and hang these on the bulletin board. Have students include eggs, hatchlings and adult alligators to show all stages of the life cycle. Make the bulletin board an ongoing project that students can add to or change to make habitat improvements.
For younger students, write a word family ending such as "--at," "--et" or "--ig" on an image of a mother alligator. Write corresponding word family words on eggs such as cat, rat, bat, pet, bet, set, pig, big and dig. Have students match the alligator eggs to the correct mother alligator.
For older students, write the word "Alligator" on the top of the bulletin board. Invite students to write words they can make using the letters in alligator-on-alligator outlines. Hang outlines on the bulletin board. Place a different alligator-themed word on the board each day such as Everglades, reptile, carnivore or hatchling.
Create math-related games that allow students to move alligator-themed items around the bulletin board to show off their math skills. Provide pictures of both left-facing and right-facing alligators with open mouths. Place pairs of numbers on the bulletin board and have students use the alligator mouths as "greater than" and "less than" signs to complete the math problems. Write numbers on alligator burrows and have students hang the correct number of eggs or baby hatchling alligators to match the number on the burrow. Place alligators of different sizes on the board and encourage younger students to arrange the alligators by size.
Have students write alligator poetry to hang on the bulletin board. Younger students can write simple rhymes or acrostic poems while older students may choose to write limericks or haikus. Allow students to post fiction stories or non-fiction reports about alligators on the bulletin board. Place comment cards below the pieces of writing so students can write encouraging feedback to their classmates.