Ever taken your little ones to see the elephants at the zoo? Their eyes widen with wonder at the sight of these gentle giants! 

Bring a little bit of the wonder home from the zoo with this elephant toilet paper roll craft. It’s a neat way for kids to think outside of the box and use their imaginations to see an ordinary household item become a majestic zoo animal.

Find even more easy toilet paper roll crafts for kids to get creative with, and turn those empty rolls into extraordinary creations together!

Recycled Elephant Craft Idea

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Encourage your budding artists to use their creativity and see everyday materials in a whole new light. Transforming a humble toilet paper roll into an elephant buddy is a great way for them to hone essential skills while making a story or play time companion.

To get started, hit download and print our free template then gather a few basic supplies along with a toilet paper roll.

Supplies

• Toilet paper rolls or new cardboard tubes
• Colored cardstock or construction paper
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• Double sided tape (optional)
• Elephant template (unlock the template link at the end of the post)

Directions

Start by downloading the elephant template and printing it out. Once you have the template printed, gather the materials needed for this fun activity. Get those scissors ready, and let’s help the kids bring this elephant to life!

First, guide your child to glue the inner ears to the center of the ear.

Next, glue the trunk on the center of the face.

Place the eyes below the eyebrows and glue them in place.

Now, help your child place the tape along one end of the elephant’s body and stick it to the toilet paper roll.

Take the other side of the body and place another strip of tape on it.

Wrap it around the cardboard tube and tape it in place.

Position the legs on the bottom portion of the toilet paper roll and glue them in place.

Glue the back legs to the side of the toilet paper roll.

Finally, encourage your child to glue the head to the top portion of the body.

Be sure to check out our animal crafts while you’re here! Your kids will love creating more fun DIYs like this one!

Cute Elephant Name Craft

Kids’ Animal Ideas

Looking for more wild ideas to keep your little animal enthusiasts roaring with excitement? Take a look through a zoo full of fun projects and educational activities that feature some of the coolest critters around! These creative creations and engaging activities will have your kids excited to learn.

Read on below for some paws-itively perfect books to read with them and some hands-on activities that will be a hit with your little animal lovers.

Animal Books For Kids

The Fascinating Animal Book For Kids is a great book for curious kiddos! Find facts on almost any animal your child is learning about. This is a great resource to have in your home library collection.

The View At The Zoo is a silly book about all the animals at the zoo. When the people come to take a look at the animals, they see all sorts of sights! But, there’s a twist to this book that you have to read for yourself and laugh about!

Giraffes Can’t Dance is a sweet and fun book about Gerald the Giraffe. He can’t dance, but doesn’t stop trying! He finally finds his own rhythm when he meets an unlikely friend.

Free Printable Zoo Animal Crafts

Snake Paper Bag Puppet – Slither into fun with a paper bag snake puppet! Watch your little ones transform an ordinary bag into a wriggly snake. This sssensational serpent is a fun way to spark creativity and storytelling with your kiddos.

Try these fun Elephant Worksheets!

Elephant Paper Cup Craft – Using a paper cup is an ele-fantastic way to encourage creativity and transform it into a peanut loving friend. Use our free template, grab a paper cup, and get the kids busy creating!

Tiger Headband Craft – Unleash roar-some fun with a tiger headband! Kids can either piece it together or simply color in the template to make their headband and turn into ferocious felines. It’s a purr-fect project for sparking creativity and imaginative play.

Koala Handprint Craft – Climb into creative fun with a handprint koala! Kids can use their own hands to create this cuddly critter. It’s a cute project that turns handprints into adorable koala pals and sweet keepsakes.

Animal Themed Activities

Our animal do a dot printables are a great way to introduce your little ones to learning in a fun way! This set is perfect for toddlers to kindergarteners and includes 29 engaging pages featuring cute creatures like crocodiles, elephants, and foxes.

Kids can enjoy hours of entertainment with full color or black and white options for dotting and coloring. Plus, there are extra activities like animal dot counting and letter recognition. Be sure to download this set to combine learning and play!

This set of four printable polar bear cutting activity pages helps kids master their scissor skills. They’ll practice cutting along straight, curved, wavy, and zig-zagged lines. These pages blend creativity and learning as kids match polar bear illustrations and count how many are in each box.

Elephant Popsicle Stick Craft

Watch your little ones proudly show off their handiwork, turning cutting practice into a fun exploration of numbers, matching, and fine motor skills.

Prepare for jumbo sized fun with some cute connect the dot sheets! Our elephant dot to dots are perfect for boosting cognitive skills while having a blast! Kids will enhance their concentration, focus, and attention span as they connect the dots to unveil different elephant illustrations.

These activities are a fantastic way to teach sequential counting and following instructions. Download these free sheets today and watch your children learn and grow while having a great time!

Blend black and white slime to create some cool zebra slime! This activity is great to use with your animal enthusiasts and perfect for a zoo themed lesson. This slime recipe is simple and fun to make, even if you’re new to slime making with kids.

Try this Circus Elephant Craft!

Making slime is both a science experiment and a sensory play activity and combining these elements with a zebra twist makes for a wonderfully enriching experience that kids will absolutely love!

Share With Us

Did you make this activity with your kids or students? We’d love to feature them on our social media!

For a chance to have your child’s project featured, simply snap a picture of the completed project and post it to our Facebook page, email it to us directly by clicking here, or use #simpleeverydaymom on your social media!

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