Conducting Elephant For Singing Time

Conducting Elephant For Singing Time

Conducting Elephant

For Singing Time

Made by Brynn & Tifany from Port Orchard, WA.

Email- thoeche@gmail.com” data-mce-href=”mailto:thoeche@gmail.com“>thoeche@gmail.com

While perusing various websites, I read about how a chorister made an elephant poster & used it with her Primary children. Unfortunately, I don’t remember where I read about this.  I loved her idea!  So I give a huge “Thank You!” to that thoughtful chorister, whomever you areJ.  She didn’t have visuals posted, so I thought I would post some for you to see from the one my daughter & I made.

The purpose of the Conducting Elephant is to teach the children to conduct music in a fun and engaging way.  By cutting out a hole on the elephant’s face in place of the trunk, the children insert their arm for the trunk & help conduct the song.  This helps with memorizing songs for the Program.  The children are willing to sing it over and over just to see the “trunk” wiggle around!

Materials Needed:

Poster board             Craft paint                    6 small canning lids       Drinking cup (to trace for the trunk hole)

Foam board              Sponge paint brush       6 magnets                     Pencil

Paint markers            Exacto knife                 527 Bond glue              Eraser              Cardboard “handle”

If you’re wondering how much time and effort this takes, just know that you can make it a lot simpler than I did.  Instead of painstakingly coloring the elephant with paint markers, you can cut out the elephant using construction paper or butcher paper.  Then assemble it & glue onto poster board.  These are just the steps I did for this project & I was figuring things out as I went along.  Hindsight is always 20/20.

My daughter, Brynn, loves to draw.  She drew the elephant on poster board with grids on it.  She did a great job!  It was then up to me to do the coloring and assembling.  I traced a circle in place of the trunk.  I used Elmer’s brand of Paint Markers to color it.  Once colored and then outlined in black, I used the cup I traced & an exacto knife to cut out the trunk hole.

For a more supported Conducting Elephant, I then bought a foam poster board to attach the elephant to.  I should have done this BEFORE drawing the elephant.  The elephant ended up being longer & wider than the foam board.  So I used part of the cardboard box our TV came in.  I cut it a little bit bigger than the elephant.  I place the elephant on the cardboard & used a slightly smaller cup to cut out the trunk hole.  I did this so that the flimsy poster board trunk hole wouldn’t get ripped & torn.  I painted around the cardboard trunk hole to help it blend in.

I used green craft paint & sponge brush to color the perimeter.  (Remember, I cut it slightly bigger than the elephant poster board to alleviate abuse)  I glued jar lids across the top & bottom.

The jar lids are the metal that the magnet strips need in order to work.  I used self-adhesive magnet strips, placing them in the correct position to the jar lids.  I wanted to make the poster inter-changeable.  I can make other “conducting” posters & easily switch them back & forth.

I found a heavy-duty cardboard piece to use as a handle on the back.  The child can hold up the elephant by the handle with one hand while using the other hand to conduct.

My kids think that I should make a “sleeve” for them to where over the conducting hand trunk.  It’s a good thought & I may decide to do that as well, especially a non-pink color.  Who knows?!   If you’re wondering about the color (pink) of the elephant, it’s because we are a house full of girls.  Pink is our favorite colorJ.

Adapt this project in any way that makes it work for you.  Simplify, simplify, simplify!