Cardboard Tube Elmo

My daughter loves this particular Elmo video (see below) so we decided to make a toilet paper roll Elmo.  I let her paint & color his body parts, while big brother painted the tp roll for us.  While doing this activity I realized this is the first time she's really painted with us.  Not because I'm opposed to it, but because we are in a temporary apartment while our house is being built and we have no backyard and carpet in the dining room (yuck).  She loved it and after he was all dry and assembled she ran around the house yelling "I made it, I made it.  Look Coley, I made Elmo".  Too cute.

Elmo Supply List: 1 toilet paper roll, red paint, glue, scissors, Elmo body part printout 

 Print your Elmo parts and paint or color them in.

 Paint your toilet paper roll and allow to dry.

 Cut out your arms, legs and head and glue them on your toilet paper roll.

Run around the house hugging your Elmo.  Push him in your play stroller and then drop items through the toilet paper roll and yell "Look mom, Elmo pooped".

Video Suggestion: I don't normally recommend videos, but this one is awesome and both my kids have loved it.  Elmocize isn't just your normal Sesame Street video.  There is singing and dancing and exercising and all sorts of excitingly active shenanigans.  If you have a little Elmo lover in your house and you haven't seen this, check it out asap.

Toilet Paper Roll Elmer the Elephant

If you've been following our site, you'll remember that last month we created an elephant made out of a cardboard tube.  I also mentioned how Cole is obsessed with elephants and LOVES all the Elmer books.  Well... we were at the grocery store shortly after that and found tissue boxes that has a patchwork print.  Cole spotted them first and even said "hey look mom, they have Elmer tissues".  So I bought them, and we used them, and then we made ourselves and Elmer the Elephant out of the box.

Elmer Supply List: 1 toilet paper roll, patchwork tissue box, glue, google eyes

Cut out a piece of the box that is the same length as your toilet paper roll.

Cut out ears, a trunk and a tail from the patchwork tissue box.

Glue your piece of tissue box around the toilet paper roll and allow to dry.  I use ponytail holders wrapped around the tube to keep everything in place while the glue dries.

Add your ears, trunk, eyes and tail and cut some feet out of the bottom.  Here is our toilet paper roll Elmer sitting next to Cole's stuffed Elmer.  I think he looks pretty good.

Book Suggestion: Since I already shared a link to the Elmer book, I'll share my favorite Elmer.  Elmer's Special Day is the day when all the elephants paint themselves multi-colored and Elmer paints himself regular gray elephant color.  It's a bunch of elephant shenanigans all around!

Cardboard Tube Elephant

Elephant Supply List: 1 paper towel roll, paint, scissors, glue, google eyes

Start by painting your paper towel roll.  We decided to use watercolors and they weren't very bright, but I think it turned out nicely.

Once the paint has dried, cut off the top of the paper towel roll at an angle.

Cut out 2 ears and a trunk out of the scrap of paper towel roll.

Cut feet out of the paper towel roll.

Glue your ears, trunk and google eyes onto your paper towel roll.

Book Suggestion: The Elmer series of books was given to Cole by his Nana a few years ago.  I was actually pleased when the elephant he painted had some blue and purple in it because it reminded me of Elmer.  If you haven't read about Elmer and his antics you should check them out from your local library.  They are a big hit in our house.