The Plan
Books
Elmer by David McKee
Hide and Seek by Il Sung Na
My Elephant by Petr Horacek
What to Do If An Elephant Stand on Your Foot by Michelle Robinson
Extension Activities
Flannelboard: “Five Elephants in the Bathtub”
Action Rhyme: “Big Gray Elephant”
The big gray elephant slowly walks.
She doesn’t make a sound.
She swings her trunk from left to right.
When she puts her feet on the ground.
Swing, swing, left and right,
She doesn’t make a sound.
Fingerplay with Puppets: “Two Big Elephants”
Two big elephants were sitting on a hill
One named Jack and the other named Jill
Run away, Jack! Run away, Jill!
Come back, Jack! Come back, Jill!
Fingerplay: “Up the Hill”
Here goes a turtle up a hill, creepy, creepy, creepy, creepy (crawl up arm)
Here goes a rabbit up a hill, boing, boing, boing, boing (bounce up arm)
Here goes a snake up the hill, slither, slither, slither, slither (slide up arm)
Here goes an elephant up the hill, thud, thud, thud, thud (clap up arm)
Here comes an elephant down the hill, boom, boom, boom, boom, CRASH! (bounce down, clap hands for crash)
Song: “One Elephant Went Out to Play”
Craft
This craft came from this amazing Pinterest pin, originally from Tippytoe Crafts! Parents and kids loved this craft, and Miss Katie made sure to buy noisemakers that were super difficult to make the noise with.
How It Went
I had a lot of new families in this storytime and I got a lot of high compliments on their way out the door! (It is totally reassuring, even if you a veteran, to hear that your work is appreciated!) I think they had the best time during “What If An Elephants Stand on Your Foot,” which was the book that inspired this theme! I also modified the “Up the Hill” fingerplay, which led to lots of giggles once the elephant went down the hill!
storytime katie 
Thank you for your wonderful work and generosity Katie. I love your blog! I will be offering a 20 week lapsit program beginning on 10/6 and one of my new themes is elephants. This will be very helpful. I also put together a list of elephant stories, curriculum and crafts last year on my blog. You may find that information here:
http://karenchace.blogspot.com/2011/08/gentle-giants-among-us-elephants-in.html
Wishing you a happy day!
Karen Chace
Professional Storyteller/Teaching Artist
Thank you for the link! Good luck with your lapsit program — I’m sure it will be a great success!
Your ideas are absolutely precious!! Can’t wait to use the elephant noisemaker craft in my kindermusik classroom!
Enjoy the elephant!!
This craft is perfect for our playgroup. We are a group of expat moms in India so often supplies are limited ,but I just saw noisemakers in a small toy shop! Next week is my first time to host and I’ve chosen an elephant theme. Thanks for posting such great ideas!
At the end of summer, exhausted and trying to think of what to do for September, I always find and am inspired by your ideas, crafts, and all around awesome storytimes! Thank you again for energizing my storytime planning.
Thank you for reading!