Perhaps A stuffed elephant can go to school for a special occasion, but leaving a real one home is a wise idea.
Certain children's books bring out the imagination in children. One of those books, targeted toward children in second grade, is called "Never Bring An Elephant to School." The tale discusses the reasons why you should probably leave an elephant at home if you happen to have one. This lighthearted tale can be transformed into various activities to keep the lessons learned fresh after the book has been read.
(Stuffed) Pet Parade
Though the book makes light of the fact that bringing an elephant to school is probably not the best idea, you can use this overarching theme to create an activity that does allow students to bring pets in to the classroom. Create a pet parade by asking the students to bring in a favorite stuffed animal. You are most likely going to get a stuffed elephant brought in, which helps tie this activity to the book. Ask each child to stand in the front of the classroom and introduce their stuffed animal, explain what type of animal it is and describe why they chose it as their favorite.
Musical Chairs.....Elephant Style
Musical chairs is an activity that encourages kids to get moving and listening for the music to stop so that they can grab a seat. The point to the activity is that for each round one chair is removed so one student gets tagged as out every round. To put a twist on this concept to coincide with the book, change the rules slightly. In the book, it is discussed that an elephant couldn't fit under a chair if needed. To keep this theme alive, instead of having students sit on top of chairs, have them go under the chairs when the music stops each round.
Elephants on Parade
One of the points to the story is that you probably also wouldn't want to bring an elephant to school because they are loud. Ask the children to dress up in or make elephant costumes. Ensure that everyone has a trunk. Ask the kids to parade around the school, classroom, hallways or even outside. Kids should swing their "trunks" and make elephant sounds.
Who Can Clap the Loudest
One portion of the book illustrates that an elephant in a classroom can be problematic because when he goes to applaud something, he blows his trunk so loud it knocks people over. You can use this concept for an activity to see who in the class can clap the loudest. A different twist to this activity is to have the kids wear their elephant trunks and see who can "blow" their horn the loudest as well.
Tags: activity that, each round, make elephant, students bring, stuffed animal, stuffed elephant, that elephant