Lollipops had a lovely time making her Elmer elephant. This is a fabulous craft to do with little ones. I actually did this as a 5-10 minute teaching activity in a seminar session in the first year of my B.Ed. Cue learning the hard way to make sure ALL the milk cartons are thoroughly washed. Very embarrassing moment!
I did it using a milk carton and coloured tissue paper squares, but you can stick anything you want to make your colourful Elmers. Different patterned fabric could look beautiful. If there's one thing to learn from Elmer, celebrate individuality!
As they play they are practising maths (shape, pattern), physical (fine motor, coordination), literacy (storytelling, character, retelling, props for storytelling) and creative (colour, sculpture, junk modelling) skills!
This is a lovely way to celebrate the beloved Elmer character from David McKee’s wonderful story books.
Materials:
- Empty (and clean) milk containers
- scissors
- brightly coloured tissue paper (or card. Or fabric for the non-conformists) cut into equal size and shape squares
- PVA or white glue
- brushes (glue sticks are fine for fabric or card but will probably result in rips for tissue paper)
- white card
- black pen
Stand the milk jug up and cut into it just below the handle. This will form the elephant’s trunk. Then cut off the entire bottom half of the jug and cut four legs into it, as well as a little tail. It's as easy as that! A perfect elephant shape.
As you stick on the coloured squares you can use this as an opportunity for dialogue. The children can look at the pictures in the story book and think about how they want their Elmers to look. Do they want the squares in a straight line? (You may need to start them off) or do they want them to be random and disorganised? When the colours overlap (with tissue paper) do they notice the colours bleeding into each other? You may want to discuss how the squares need to touch each other all of the way around his body so that there are no gaps.
Once the Elmers are covered, another wash of glue over the top will make it dry hard and shiny.
Once the rest of the elephant is dry, the ears can be made by cutting equal sized pieces of white card into semi circles, with a tab at the bottom for bending to glue onto the body. Simply stick the colours onto the ears before attaching them.
The eyes can just be drawn on with black pen/Sharpie markers. Alternatively, white circles cut from card, with black pupils drawn on stand out well against the colours.
Children love these. I love these. They make great story-telling props and if children look at the parade pages of the story, they can make up their own designs and be as inventive as they like.
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