Paper Elephant

I've been working on the daunting task of cleaning out our filing cabinets.  We have two and they are stuffed.  I'm trying to remove the things we couldn't possibly need (phone bills for places we haven't lived in 10 years, newsletters from clubs we no longer belong to, and other similar things) to make room for things we actually do need to save.  As I'm purging, I'm finding plenty of treasures.  Among them: a paper elephant.

When I was in college, I did an internship at a nearby elementary school.  It was a lot of fun to leave the college campus once a week to spend the morning in first grade.  The teacher I worked with was amazing and taught me so much about curriculum planning, classroom management, student discipline, and assessment methods.  She also taught me how to make an elephant from a piece of construction paper.

Materials: one piece of construction paper, scissors, glue, black pen

Begin by folding the construction paper in half (hamburger-style, if you speak fluent Elementary School).  With the fold at the top, make 5 cuts.

1. Round off the upper left corner.
2. Round off the upper right corner.
3. Cut a small sliver from the bottom near the right-hand side to form the trunk.
4. Cut a small rectangle from the end of what will form the trunk.
5. Cut a large upside-down U-shape from the bottom, centered between what will be the legs.

Save all the scraps.  Use them to cut ears, a tail and tusks.

Glue the ears, tail and tusks into place.  Recycle any remaining scraps.  Use the black pen to add an eye on each side.  Fold up about 1/4 inch of each foot so that the elephant can stand.  That's all there is to it!

Here is the elephant Trevor made while I was photographing each step:

A fun and easy project for a rainy afternoon!