Paper Plate Elephant Craft
How many paper plates does it take to make an elephant? Just one! (Plus our printable template…)
Today we’re making a paper plate elephant craft!
How did this craft come about? Well, we got inspired to create an elephant after reading one of the brilliant ‘Elephant and Piggie’ books by Mo Willems. On finishing one of the stories, my kids and I realised we were in fact missing an elephant craft from our craft collection here on the website (we have a pig craft already). So we set about making one and here it is.
This elephant craft took a couple of attempts to get right (we tried a few different shapes and materials), but in the end we’re pretty happy with how he turned out!
If you want to make this elephant craft at home with your children or in the classroom with your students, you’ll be pleased to hear its very simple. You don’t even need to draw the head/ears/trunk/legs etc because we’ve created a printable template with everything ready to paint and cut out.
To make an elephant like ours you’ll need just one paper plate per elephant, plus a piece of card stock to print the template onto.
Want the step by step instructions? Then here they are.
What you will need
- paper plate
- sheet of cardstock
- scissors
- tape and glue
- paint
- pom pom (optional)
- googly eyes (optional)
A note about materials…
If you’re using coloured card stock to print the template on, make sure that you have the same colour paint to match for the paper plate (unless you want your elephant to have a different coloured head and body).
We used acrylic paint to paint our paper plate. Of course, make sure any paint you’re using is non toxic.
You can add google eyes to your elephant’s face, but equally you can just draw on the face if you don’t have these. Likewise for the pom pom on the tail – if you don’t have a pom pom, you can just cut out a circle of card and glue this to the end of the tail instead.
Once you’ve gathered all the materials, it’s time to start crafting your paper plate elephant.
How to make a paper plate elephant, step by step
Step 1
Begin by printing the template onto a sheet of thin card stock. We printed our onto white card stock, but you could also print onto coloured card stock and then match your paint to that colour.
Step 2
Next comes the painting.
Paint the paper plate with your chosen colour.
If you are using white card stock, paint the elephants head, ears, legs and tail too.
Depending on what type of paint you are using, you may need to let your paper plate dry and then paint another layer on top.
Step 3
Once all the paint is dry, cut out all the different parts of the elephant.
Step 4
On the elephant’s head, draw a face. We added a mouth and two googly eyes. You can also just draw on the eyes with a marker or colouring pencil if you don’t want to use the googly eyes.
Step 5
Next, it’s time to begin assembling your paper plate elephant.
Begin by attaching both the legs to the back of the paper plate.
We used tape, but glue would also work well too.
Step 6
Attach the ear by putting glue on the ‘glue tab’ and fixing it to the back of the paper plate. You can also just tape the ear onto the back of the plate too, if this is easier.
Step 7
Attach the elephant’s head onto the front rim of the paper plate. Either glue or a rolled up piece of tape will work. Sticky glue dots are also a good option for attaching the head too.
Step 8
Finally, you can add a tail. We used a strip of card and glued a pom pom to the end. Glue or tape the tail to the back of the paper plate.
And with that your paper plate elephant is complete!
Want to craft your own elephant with your child or students? Then grab the template here.
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Looking for more paper plate crafts? We have lots!
…Or visit our paper plate craft page for the full array of paper plate crafts!
