E is for Elmer the Elephant

E is for Elmer the Elephant!
To see these activities in action, watch them in my Instagram stories, saved under "Ee"

• Elmer the Elephant Letter Roll and Decorate
        **Activity inspired by Katy @ PrekWolfPack
• Using butcher paper or newsprint, draw a BIG Elmer the Elephant (use a sharpie, or I used a homemade India Ink bingo dauber inspired by Cassie Stephens). Be sure to add the grid lines!
• What else you need:
• Letter die – I used blank dice from the Dollar Tree (or there are lots of options here) and added the letters we are working on right now (B-G).
• Square Letter Stickers [to match the letters on the die] – I made my own, using precut square stickers from Online Labels.
  *Usually I will use my Silhouette machine to make custom stickers, but Online Labels has a lot of simple shape sticker options with templates for easy printing (order a free sample to try them out!).
• How to play:
• Roll the letter die, recognize the letter
• Find the matching letter sticker
• Stick it on Elmer to make him a colorful patchwork elephant!

• Elephant peanut Letter Find and Cover (or write)
• Grab a bag of peanuts (with the shells on) at the Dollar Store or grocery store. With a sharpie, write one letter of the alphabet on each peanuts.

• Toss those peanuts in a sensory bin (our go to is a rice/wheat bin) with some jumbo tweezers and letters in their name (we are always practicing spelling our names!)
• Print this traceable alphabet (lowercase on one side, uppercase on the other side), laminate or put in a sheet protector to use with a dry erase marker.
• Use the tweezers to find and pick a peanut out of the bin.
• Recognize the letter on the peanut.
• Find that letter on the traceable page and trace it.

• **If your preschooler can write letters on their own, use lined paper or a blank page that they can write the letters they find.

• Read Elmer’s Friends by David McKee
• Have your preschooler/s bring their favorite stuffed ANIMAL.
• This book talks about one of the best, or most obvious, things about that animal, ie: Polar Bear, you’re the whitest.
• Look at the stuffed animals and work together to decide what is their favorite thing, or the best thing, or most obvious thing about their animal.
• IE: Puppy Dog, you have the cutest bark.
        Unicorn, you have the pointiest horn.
• Then have that same conversation about the kids! What is a special thing, or a favorite thing, or the best thing about them?
• IE: Matt, you’re the silliest.
        Ellie, you have the darkest hair.

• Feed the Elephants – capital and lowercase E sorting
• What you need:
• 2 Paper elephant heads, 1 with a capital E and 1 with a lowercase E. Cut out the nose!
• 2 paper towel tubes (or long craft tubes), wrapped in matching gray paper.
• Peanuts in the shell, with one letter E or e written on them.
• Some kind of bin with a filler (rice, wheat, beans, dry oatmeal, etc).
• 2 containers (I used quart mason jars)
• Tape the craft tubes to the elephant heads, as though it is their trunk, sticking straight out. Then attach those heads to their own container.
• Put the peanuts with the letter Es written on them in a bigger bin with a filler.
• TO PLAY:
• Grab one (or two!) peanuts.
• Recognize the E, if it is capital or lowercase.
• Feed the elephant that matches that E, by putting the peanut in the “truck” (craft tube).

**This activity can also be played by sorting numbers and letters (if you want to use the alphabet peanuts from the activity above, and write numbers on more peanuts).  Elephant head printables are available for free HERE.

• Read Elmer’s Special Day by David McKee
• Decorate these Elephant Masks from First Palette.
• use dot stampers, markers, crayons, water colors, glitter glue, stickers, etc… 
• Cut out and attach to a jumbo craft stick (or punch holes and tie yarn).

• Using the elephant masks, go on an elephant parade. During the parade, act like the animals…
• stomp like an elephant
• slither like a snake
• jump like a kangaroo
• fly like a bird
• etc!

• Elephant Snack time
• Turn on youtube to watch the elephants (we watched the Cincinnati Zoo Home Safari) while you try some shelling peanuts and eating them.
• Discuss what else elephants like to eat!
• Watch the Elephants and what they do.

• Draw an Elephant
• Follow Art For Kids Hub's simple directions to draw your own elephant (Gerald from Piggie & Elephant)!!

Find more E preschool ideas and activities here!

-Kiley