Elmer--First Week of School Activity

One activity and book we used for the First Week back to school was....

                       Elmer by David McKee

After reading the story and talking about how it is ok to be different, the students made "Elmer Mosaics"  using cut paper squares.  If you have not read Elmer, it is a story about an Elephant who looks like a quilt of many colors.  He is the source of all the fun and laughter in the Elephant herd.  One day he decides he does not want to be different so he find a tree with elephant colored berries.  Elmer rolls around in the berries, until he looks like everyone else.  Upon returning to his herd, he finds all his friends very serious and not having any fun.  He plays a trick, to make them laugh.  All the elephants say "Elmer would love that, too bad he is not here".  Finally, it starts to rain and washes off all of Elmer's elephant colored berry stain.  In the end, he realizes that it's not bad to be different after all.
If you haven't started school yet, this might be a book you would like to add to your first week.



This is the "Sequal" to Elmer.  I have not read it yet, but my friend found it, and thought I might like it.  I plan on reading it during the 2nd week of school.