Bugle-Horned Rhinos

So this rhino craft we did today isn't the cutest art project. It won't win any awards or end up on any refrigerators. But there aren't many rhino crafts out there from which to get inspiration. And when I started thinking about what we could use for the horns, I couldn't resist trying Bugles.

I found a coloring sheet of a rhinoceros that I liked, but I covered up the horns with white-out before I photocopied it for my class. The kids used watercolors to paint them.

Then they could select one or two Bugles (since some rhinos have one horn and some have two). We used full Bugles for the big horns and I broke the top off of some for the small horns.

Then all they had to do was squirt a little glue,

and add their horns!

I think they turned out kind of cute, actually!

I also think candy corn would work for the horns.

Fun Fact: Black rhinos are very endangered. So much so that when my brother went on an African safari a few years ago, he said each black rhino had its own bodyguard!

Lazy Lions

We are on safari this week! That's right -- traveling to the Serengeti! This is one of my most favorite themes. You can see all our safari crafts from last year here, but I'm adding a few new ones this year. Today I taught about lions. The first thing I taught them was that lions are not the kings of the jungle because they don't live in jungles! It amazes me how many children's books show lions living in jungles. For art, I printed out a couple coloring pages of lions. I often like to use a coloring sheet for art, but expand on it so it's more than just coloring. First the kids colored their lion.

Then I put out orange and yellow tissue paper squares (I would have also used brown if I had any) and glue.

The kids scrunched up a tissue square, dipped it in glue, and stuck it on the mane or tail of their lion.

It added some nice texture and a little bit of excitement to their lions!

Fun Fact: The lion's mane gets darker as he ages. So the darker the mane, the older the lion.

Safari Puppets

I have one last safari craft for you all. I found large craft sticks at Michaels that had animal prints on them.

I bought them without really knowing what I'd do with them. The kids in my class love to make little puppets. Often when they draw pictures of people or animals, they ask if they can cut it out and attach it to a popsicle stick. So I googled coloring pages for different safari animals until I found ones I liked. I had a giraffe, crocodile, zebra, tiger, cheetah, and leopard. The cheetah and leopard would both use the yellow craft stick with black spots. Then the kids colored the pictures and attached the appropriate stick.

Oh, they just loved it!

Giraffes and Zebras

It's been awhile since I've posted. It was a busy week, and when I finally had time to write, Blogger was down. But now I can get back to my safari crafts. These two I found here and here. I changed things just a bit, though. I prepared the footprints a few days before we did the craft. I asked each child if they wanted to be a giraffe or zebra, then I traced their foot (with their shoe on for a rounder look) on either yellow or white paper, depending on the animal they chose. Then I cut out necks and ears in both yellow and white. On our craft day, the kids glued their footprint onto the neck, glued on the ears, and drew on the face. For the giraffes, the kids used brown paint to make a mane and horns on top of the head. Then they used their finger to made the spots all over. Some kids even used their fingerprint to make the round part at the top of the horns.

For the zebras, the kids used black paint to make stripes and a mane.

It took almost the entire length of one wall to display them all.

And look at what our All Star brought in for a treat:

That's layered jello. Almost too pretty to eat!

Giraffe Fun Fact: The adult giraffe's front legs are so powerful it could easily kill a lion with one kick.

Zebra Fun Fact: A zebra's teeth keep growing for its entire life. The teeth don't look long because the constant grazing and chewing wear them down.

Happy Hippos

Hello! Today's safari animal is the hippo. This craft is so cute, but I did not think of it. I found it here. I didn't change a thing because I loved it just the way it was. I cut out hippo heads that I drew by hand. Each one is actually two, with the tops of the heads glued together. The kids drew on the face, then on the inside they glued on the tongues and marshmallow teeth.

A couple of the kids even got extra creative and stacked two marshmallows together to make the longer teeth!

I heard one child say, "I wish this was an eating center so I could eat these marshmallows!" After center time was over, I let them each have one to eat. It would have been cruel not to. After the glue dried, I hung the hippos on the wall.

I love the green letters with the purple hippos against the blue wall. It looks like the hippos are mostly under water with just their heads sticking up. So cute!

Fun Fact: Hippos look like they sweat blood, but actually their sweat has an oily red pigment in it.

Elephants

It's my week to teach, so I'm back with more art projects! We are learning about Serengeti safari animals. The kids love it and I love to teach about it. And when I say teach I really mean teach. I don't just mean, "This is an elephant. It has big ears, a trunk, and tusks." I use books from the non-fiction children's section in the library that have wonderful pictures and great facts about the animals. As I flip through the pages of the book so the kids can see the pictures, I tell them facts about that animal. I tell them the tusks never stop growing, and they use their trunks as snorkels when walking under water, and they hug by wrapping their trunk around another's trunk, and baby elephants suck on their trunks just like human babies suck their thumbs. And I tell them the not-so-happy facts as well, like the only enemies of the African elephant are people, and that a charging elephant will stomp to death any animal that gets in its way. Many times I will have a little "quiz" at the end of the week and ask the kids questions about the animals. They love these quizzes. And sometimes I even turn the quizzes into game shows, where they win prizes. It's a lot of fun.

So anyway, today was elephants, obviously. Our art was simple but a huge hit. I found elephant finger puppets online here. I cut them out and cut a hole where the trunk would be. The kids colored them with crayons.

Then instead of using their finger for the trunk, I let the kids pick out a party blower! We put that in the hole and the kids could blow the trunk out.

Now, I know that elephants don't curl their trunks under when not in use, but the kids loved this. I didn't know it when I bought them, but if you blow hard enough, they make a noise. So really, these little elephants can trumpet! (I was apologizing to the parents at pick-up because it can get very loud, especially when a bunch of kids are doing it at the same time!)

Oh, what a fun time the kids had with these today!

Fun Fact: An elephant's trunk has two finger-like parts on the tip. This allows them to pick up small objects, like a berry on the ground or a leaf on a tree.