Plastic toy animals are by far the easiest choice, and teachers know it. When your child insists on taking this route, consider how to incorporate challenges into other areas of the project. For instance, require your child to build the landscape or seascape around the animal from craft materials instead of simply coloring or painting the scene. Possible construction materials are air-dry clay, plaster of Paris, colored cellophane and tissue paper. Help your child by securing plastic animals with hot glue or another strong glue.
If your child likes to draw or paint, she can use these skills to create her animals. While her creatures may not look as polished as the store-bought toys, she will have a sense of accomplishment, and her teacher will appreciate the extra effort. Keep animals to scale by cutting squares of card stock or providing index cards. Let her cut out the animals, leaving a tab of paper measuring about half an inch at the bottom. She can fold this at a right angle to the feet and tape or glue it into the diorama. Alternatively, your child can punch holes and hang animals from the top with fishing line. This works well for birds or fish.
Older children sometimes judge their own art harshly. If your child wants to create his own animals but finds it frustrating, help him out with a modern version of an old graphic artist's trick--the light table. A light table allows your child to trace a picture by shining light through the bottom of it so he can see it through drawing paper. A simple image search for animals will provide your child with pictures he can trace by placing copy paper directly on the computer screen. Have him glue completed animals to card stock for strength.
If you have a child with a long attention span and an unusual sense of precision, have her try origami animals. Origami is the Oriental art of folding paper to create sculptures. Projects range from simple to extremely difficult and best suit older children in third grade or higher. You can buy special decorative origami paper at most craft stores. Basic copy paper will also work. While origami is not for everyone, it can be fantastic for children who constantly look for new challenges and enjoy careful, detailed work.
Children who want to build their animals with an easier method than origami should try air-dry clay. Air-dry clay handles similarly to Play-Doh but will not crack as it dries. It comes in many colors, and your child can texturize it with simple tools like tooth picks, plastic forks and other household items. Cookie cutters provide a simple and accurate shaping. For standing animals, have your child mold a base below the feet. Poke holes in the tops of flying or swimming animals and attach with fishing line.