Whenever I take my kids to the zoo, one of the first animal exhibits they want to see is the elephant pit. At our local zoo, there are three elephants and, over the years, we’ve spent hours standing there watching them as they eat, walk, bathe, and perform…uh…other bodily functions. (It’s nature!)
As we were thinking about some new coffee filter crafts for kids we could make, we hit upon a coffee filter elephant craft! So that’s what we made. And it was such a fun project I wanted to share it!
This would be a perfect craft to make when you’re learning about zoo animals, the African savannah, or even Asia! Plus, kids can make their own wild animal collection by adding our coffee filter moose craft or our coffee filter owl craft! Read on to see how we made this cute elephant craft.
If you want to teach the kids about zoo animals, be sure to check our our printable zoo animal flashcards too!
Coffee Filter Crafts for Kids: Coffee Filter Elephant Craft
To make this coffee filter elephant craft, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are provided for convenience. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)
As you can see, this craft only takes a few supplies, so you won’t need to make a store run. Unless, of course, you’re actually out of coffee. 😉
Color one of the filters gray and then glue it to the center of a piece of construction paper. We used yellow, but any light color will work. (You want the details you add with the gray crayon later to show up well.)
Use a black crayon to draw two eyes at the top center of the filter.
Now we’re going to pause to make the trunk. Use the gray crayon to color in half of the other coffee filter.
Cut the gray half off of the filter and discard the uncolored part. Now use the scissors to cut the center half-circle out of the gray filter. Keep the outer crimped ring.
Glue one end of the crimped ring to the center of the filter you glued down. Now your elephant has a trunk!
Lift up the trunk to draw a smile on the elephant’s face. Ours is a happy elephant, of course. You can draw the smile on first and then glue on the trunk, but I prefer to glue the trunk on first because it helps me center the smile. Either way. 🙂
Now use the gray crayon to outline a large ear on either side of the elephant’s face.
Use a pink crayon to color in a smaller half-circle on the ears, then color the rest in with the gray crayon. At this point, I felt we were done. But then I remembered that the elephants we always see at the zoo have very, very long eyelashes.
So we added some of our own!
And now we’re done with our coffee filter elephant craft!
This was a blast to make! And the kids will love picking up the picture and making the trunk “wiggle”.
Let your children try some of these other coffee filter animal crafts!
Plus, see more fun craft projects on my Simple Crafts for Kids Pinterest board!
