Easy & Cute Elephant Craft for Kids

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One of the best things about homeschooling is that you can do it pretty much anywhere. Homeschooling doesn’t have to be indoors. If the weather is permitting, you can set up a table outside in the fresh air with all the supplies you need for this cute elephant craft.  

Elephants are fascinating creatures! It is particularly fun to do projects involving elephants, such as this cute elephant craft, because even the youngest child can spot their features. With those big fan-like ears and impressive trunks, elephants can be recognized anywhere.

There are a lot of interesting facts about elephants, so before we jump into the elephant craft, here are 17 fun facts about elephants that you can teach your homeschool class.

17 Fun Facts about Elephants

  1. Elephants are the world’s largest land mammals. Males are larger than females, and African elephants are larger than Asian elephants. On average, elephants usually weigh from 4,500 to 11,000 pounds.
  2. The entire body of an elephant is covered in hair.
  3. A baby elephant is called a calf. At birth, a baby elephant can weigh over 250 pounds.
  4. Elephants have very long eyelashes, usually about 5 inches long.
  5. Because they have so many muscles in their trunks, elephants can perform very skilled tasks with their trunks. An elephant’s trunk has about 40,000 muscles and weighs nearly 300 pounds! An elephant can use its trunks to suck up water to drink, and as a snorkel when swimming. An elephant can lift objects nearly twice its size with its trunk. But it can also pick up a peanut, shell it, blow the shell out, and eat the nut all with its impressive trunk!
  6. An elephant’s tusks are actually incisor teeth, which usually appear when an elephant is around two years old. Elephants use their tusks to root for food and dig for water. They are also used for defense. Elephant tusks continue growing throughout their lives.
  7. Elephants are social creatures that stay in herds and provide for their young.
  8. Elephants have skin that is about an inch thick in most places. Their skin has folds and wrinkles that retain water, which helps cool them down.
  9. Elephants eat a lot! Adult elephants eat about 220 pounds of food each day. They eat grass, leaves, fruits, and roots. When the weather is dry and food is scarce, elephants will also eat twigs, branches, and bark.
  10. Elephants spend up to 16 hours each day just eating.
  11. An elephant drinks 25 to 50 gallons of water each day.
  12. An elephant makes about one ton of excrement per week. Fortunately, elephant poo is good for the environment as it fertilizes the soil and helps disperse seeds.
  13. Female elephants are pregnant for 22 months, which is the longest gestation period of any land animal.
  14. There are three different species of elephants: The African Savanna (Bush) Elephant, the African Forest Elephant, and the Asian Elephant. You can tell these species apart by their ears. African elephants have larger ears that are shaped like the African continent. Asian elephants have smaller ears, which are shaped a little like India. 
  15. Elephants have interesting ways of communicating with each other. They make trumpet calls and also use body language, touch, and scent. They can communicate through sounds that create vibrations in the ground.
  16. Baby elephants can stand within 20 minutes of being born. Within an hour, they are able to walk. And within a couple of days, they can keep up with their herd.
  17. Elephants have good memories. The temporal lobe is the area of the brain associated with memory. An elephant’s temporal lobe is larger and denser than a human’s. (Sources: natgeokids.com; wwf.org.uk; worldwildlife.org)

Easy and Cute Elephant Craft

Here are the items you’ll want to have on hand for your craft:

At the bottom of this post, after the step-by-step instructions and images, you’ll find a number of suggestions and activities to go along with this elephant craft idea.

So, let’s get started!

List of Supplies:

  1. Colored cardstock paper
  2. Colored craft paper
  3. Craft glue
  4. Pencil
  5. Scissors
Cute elephant craft - items needed for project: scissors, glue, pencil, cardstock paper

Instructions:

Step 1:

Select grey-colored cardstock paper and pink and white-colored craft paper for the elephant craft.

Trace the head, outer ear patterns, trunk, tail, and body base on the grey-colored cardstock paper.

Trace the inner ear patterns on the pink colored paper and the toe patterns on the white paper.

Cut out the traced patterns nicely.

Cute elephant craft - cardstock paper pieces laid out

Step 2:

Attach the inner ear cutouts in the middle of the outer ear cutouts.

Attach the trunk pattern near the bottom side of the head pattern

Then attach the toe cutouts along the bottom ends of the leg parts (of the body base).

Cute elephant craft - cardstock pieces placed together, pink ears and trunk on face

Step 3:

Attach the ear patterns on both sides of the head pattern.

Cute elephant craft - closer image of elephant head on cardstock paper

Step 4:

Use a black sharpie to draw the eyes, mouth, and a few lines on the trunk pattern.

Cute elephant craft - smiling face drawn on elephant

Step 5:

Take the body base cutout and roll it into a tube shape.

Then join both open ends to secure the shape of your cute elephant craft.

Cute elephant craft - cardstock paper body of elephant being glued together

Step 6:

Attach the head pattern on the top side (the plain side) of the body tube pattern, making sure to keep the head between the two legs.

Cute elephant craft - cardstock paper head of elephant being attached to body

Step 7:

Attach the tail pattern on either side of the body tube pattern to complete the cute elephant craft.

Cute elephant craft - completed project of paper craft elephant smiling, with body and tail

Click Here for the Elephant Craft Template

Additional Activities to Accompany the Cute Elephant Craft

  • Focus on learning about several mammals. You can teach your homeschoolers these fun facts about llamas, and study the native habitats of llamas in South America. Then learn about alpacas with an alpaca craft and activity sheets. Discuss the similarities between these mammals, and then compare them against elephants and their habits and habitats.
  • Add in a study about geography, focusing on the African and Asian continents, being the native habitat for elephants. Compare the three species of elephants – African Savanna or Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant, and the Asian Elephant – and discuss why God created different species for different habitats.
  • Discuss the use of elephants as symbols. For example, the elephant has been a symbol for the Republican party in the United States for well over a century. In other nations, such as India, elephants are symbols of power and strength. Your older child can research the historical symbol of elephants and write a report.
  • Bring a creative writing element to your school day! Ask your child to write a short story or poem about elephants. Poems are great ways to inspire creativity in children, as you can let them choose their style of poem or give them a specific form in which to write: an elephant haiku for younger students or a sonnet for older students, for example.
  • Check out a number of other ideas, resources, and printables about animals.

Books about Elephants for Kids

No homeschooling day is complete without a bit of reading!

Here are some storybook and educational book ideas to go along with the cute elephant craft above.

A Closing Thought

I recognize that not every school day is going to be brimming with excitement. So, if you as a homeschooling parent are struggling in finding the right approach to inspire your students, here are 10 easy ways to inspire creativity in kids.

The job you do each day with your kids is so important! Never forget that.

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