Children love the Elmer the patchwork elephant book series by David McKee. I love the Mini Mad Things blog. After reading “Elmer’s Colors,” “Elmer and Butterfly,” “Elmer and the Rainbow,” and “Elmer’s Special Day,” by David McKee I let the child in my care use paint and pastels to decorate a cardboard Elmer. It might be cleaner and easier to paste scraps of paper and fabric to decorate the patchwork elephant.
You will Need:
Elephant Template
Cardboard
Pencil
Xacto Knife
Cray-Pas Pastels
Paint, Stickers, Fabric Scraps, Paper Scraps, Glue, or Other Craft Materials
What to Do:
1. Print out and cut out the elephant template.
2. Use a pencil or crayon to trace the elephant to a flat piece of cardboard. Cut out the elephant using Xacto knife and scissors (do not allow the kids to use the Xacto knife). Be sure to cut out the slots on the body, ears, and legs to put the elephant together.
3. Allow the chid to decorate the elephant. The child I care for painted the cardboard white. Once it was dry I drew a grid on the elephant for her. She used cray-pas to color in the squares. But, allow children to decorate their elephant anyway they like using paint, stickers, or by pasting scraps of paper or fabric to the elephant.
4. Put the elephant together to make a 3D Elmer the elephant.
You can purchase the Elmer children’s books and supplies for this project by clicking the links in this article on by tapping here to visit my storefront.
References:
bethebestnanny.com 
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