Elephant Storytime

This week's storytime was all about elephants!  Did you know that elephants are the largest animal that lives on land?  And that they can use their large ears to fan themselves on hot days?

Here are some of the elephant stories we read:

Peanut by Linas Alsenas
Mildred is very lonely.  But one day she finds a stray puppy.  But is it really a puppy?  Peanut doesn't like to eat dog food, and he doesn't roll over or play fetch.  But he is great at watering Mildred's plants and is an excellent couchwarmer...

When the Elephant Walks by Keiko Kasza
When the elephant walks, he scares the bear.  When the bear runs away, he scares the crocodile.  When the crocodile swims for his life, he scares the wild hog.  The story continues in this fashion until a mouse appears.  Who could possibly be afraid of a mouse?

Elmer by David McKee
All of the elephants in the jungle are gray except for Elmer, who is a patchwork of different colors.  But one day Elmer decides that he is tired of being different and paints himself to look just like the other elephants. 

What to Do if an Elephant Stands on Your Foot by Michelle Robinson, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
The story's narrator gives advice on how to avoid encounters with various jungle animals.  But when these instructions aren't heeded encounters with other animals are the result.  This story has a linear progression with lots of different animals just like When the Elephant Walks and is an absolute hoot, but is just a little wordier.  Use the former with more restless groups or if you simply have less time.  If you have time, feel free to use both!



We also did two action rhymes/fingerplays.  I don't remember exactly where I learned this first rhyme, but it was a hit with the kids who were ready to stand up and move a little bit:

An Elephant Goes

An elephant goes

Like this and that.
      (stomp)
He’s terribly big
      (reach high)
And he’s terribly fat.
      (reach wide)
He has no fingers,
      (wiggle fingers)
He has no toes,
      (point to toes)
But goodness gracious
What a nose!
      (wave arm like an elephant's trunk) 

This next fingerplay can be done sitting down, but will still likely get a very enthusiastic response.  It was a hit with my storytime group, anyway!  I found this rhyme on Storytime Katie's blog.  Her version of Elephant Storytime has a lot of fun ideas if you 're looking for more elephant activities.

Up a Hill

Here comes a turtle up a hill,

Creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy.
      (crawl fingers up arm)
Here comes a rabbit up a hill,
Boing, boing, boing, boing.
      (bounce fingers up arm)
Here comes a snake up a hill,
Slither, slither, slither, slither.
     (slide fingers up arm)
Here comes an elephant up a hill,
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
     (clap hand up arm)
Here comes an elephant down a hill.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
     (clap hand down arm)
CRASH!
     (clap hands loudly)

To finish our storytime we made our own patchwork elephants, just like Elmer.  I found a simple outline of an elephant and printed it out on white paper.  The kids were given glue sticks and lots of cut-up tissue paper to glue onto their elephants.  The craft is simple and requires very little prep, but tissue paper crafts always prove popular at my library and the kids got a kick out of picking out just the right colors to include in their patchwork elephants.