Five Big Elephants

We have been reading our 'Five Big Elephants' poem all week, and now that we are experts at reading it we made our own elephants. I used this website for inspiration.

I have really been enjoying doing some art and craft with my lovely children this year. It has been a pleasure to see their cutting, painting, gluing, and other fine motor skills develop over the year.

First - paint some pegs gray (two pegs for each elephant). We painted ours earlier in the week so were dry when we needed them.

Cut out an elephant body and ears. We folded silver paper in half so we could save time by cutting only once around for the body and ear.

Glue a half a pipe cleaner on one body shape for the trunk, and a small piece of pipe cleaner (or wool) on for the tail.

Glue on the other body shape and the ears, one on each side. Don't forget googly eyes.

Use your pegs for the legs of your elephant, it should stand up.

We lined our elephants on the window-sill, so that we can see them when we eat lunch.

As part of our 'Absolutely Amazing Animals' inquiry learning theme this term we also looked at mammals this week (because we decided that elephants were mammals). 

We learned that:

• Mammals have live babies come out of their tummies.
• Mammals drink their mothers milk.
• Mammals breathe air.

 We have also been writing reports about elephants. We were able to share lots of information with each other.

Here are some of our reports:

'Elephants are mammals. Elephants have big ears for flapping to cool down. They are big.'

'An elephant is an animal. They are mammals. Elephants wash their face with their trunk. They can make big sounds because they are big. They have grey bodies with grey skin. Elephants are special.'

'An elephant is a mammal. Elephants are afraid of mice. Elephants can run. Sometimes you see elephants at the zoo. They have big legs and they are ginormous. They have big ears. Elephants have long trunks.'

'Elephants are mammals. They are big. Elephants have trunks. They are cool.'