We are creating a felt animal for every letter of the alphabet in our series: ABC Felt Animals!  Both my son and daughter love these animals, and though they take some time and effort, it has been well worth it to see the phonemic awareness that these felt creations are reinforcing too!!  I decided on an elephant for letter Ee; eagle and eel are long vowels, so this animal was easy to choose.  I hope you enjoy learning how to make a felt elephant :) We visited the zoo recently and saw some glorious elephants up close.  These huge mammals were, by far, my daughter’s favorite!!

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All you need to make a Felt Elephant is:

• felt: gray (we used light blue because we were out of gray, but I think it works), white, and black (or you can use paper!)
• cotton balls
• hot glue gun (or Elmer’s if you’re just using colored paper)
• amazing Fiskar scissors (if you’re going to work with felt at all, you have to check these scissors out!)

** This craft uses a hot glue gun — please keep out of the reach of children — these are for adult use only!! This elephant is light blue instead of gray {I know that this is not super scientific, but we ran out of gray!  And I kind of like the new color in our collection of animals. :) }  First you cut out the felt elephant template and two bodies {free printable below!}   Then you cut out his ears and tusks and eyes and tail.  Make sure to build the elephants facing opposite directions! I glued on the eyes, tusks, and ears, now it’s time to glue the cotton balls down and then glue around the outline and carefully place him together!   He turned out really well, even if he is blue.  This project was really straight forward, so it’s an easy one to try :) My daughter absolutely loved the “el-phin”!!  She wouldn’t let her brother have him, which caused a bit of a rift between the two.We love laying out all of our Felt Animals and placing our letters on top.  I am amazed at how much this has helped my son with his letter sounds.  

I made a template and a coloring page for you to make your own felt elephant!  

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You can download the free elephant printable here!

Book Extension

We love so many elephant books.  Here is a beautiful non-fiction book about elephants, Elephants by Steve Bloom; it is mostly photographs of these gorgeous creatures. Children love non-fiction books about animals, as they help them learn about the world around them!

Uncle Elephant by Arnold Lobel is a sweet I Can Read! story about a little orphaned elephant who is taken in by his fun, boisterous uncle.  This book, by the same author of Frog and Toad and Owl at Home, includes the classic simple sentences and beautiful, but no-nonsense pictures that parents and children have grown to love.  We also love: “Stand Back,” Said the Elephant, “I’m Going to Sneeze!” by Patricia Thomas and But No Elephants by Jerry Smath.

Other Posts in the ABC Felt Animals Series:

A is for Alligator B is for Bumblebee C is for Crab D is for Dolphin T is for Turtle U is for Umbrella Bird V is for Viper W is for Whale Y is for Yak Z is for Zebra