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Expert Elephants
(God's Animals)
by Sandra Harris

It is common for elephants to follow the same paths to watering holes year after year. In this lesson, learn about the importance of staying on the right path while learning about elephants.

Characteristic: Following God’s ways

Bible Verse: Walk in the way God has told you. Deut. 5:33

See also Deut. 5:32: So be careful to do what God has told you; do not turn away to the right or to the left.

Concepts:

There are two kinds of elephants: African elephants and Asian elephants. Elephant tusks are really two very long teeth called incisors. Baby elephants lose their “baby” tusks then grow permanent ones. Elephants often travel from one place to another for food and water. They seem to take the same paths each time they move. You might say that elephants are experts at following the right path. (Just for fun: When going down steep hills, elephants like to slide down on their bellies!)

God wants us to follow the right path. He gives us good directions to do so – they’re in the Bible.

Center Activities

Manipulatives: Build a network of roads and train tracks for various vehicles to follow. Put in some dead ends and circular paths that go nowhere. Talk about this in relation to following God’s ways: following ways that go against God will get us nowhere; we get lost when we don’t follow God; etc.

Games and Puzzles: Play games that involve following a path: Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, Aggravation, Sorry, Follow the Leader, etc. What would happen if a player refused to follow the path? Would the game be ruined for everyone playing? Try putting a puzzle together by deliberately putting pieces in the wrong place or switching some pieces with another puzzle. (Most kids will enjoy watching an adult do this.) Does it work? Why not?

Arts/Crafts: Draw a very simple maze onto card stock or recycled cereal box cardboard. Coloring books can provide a wealth of ideas. Have children trace the lines with glue – glitter glue is especially fun for this. Let glue harden (this might take overnight). Ask children to close their eyes and try to find their way through the maze with their finger without going off the path.

Craft: Elephant Trunks

For each child, cut apart six cups from an egg carton and punch a hole in the center of each with a nail or similar object. Punch two holes on the sides of one egg cup, opposite each other; cut another of the four sides out (so child can breathe when this is placed on his/her nose). Tie a piece of elastic cord, about 12 inches long, to each of the holes. Have children string the egg cups together using yarn or string. The cups should loosely nest inside each other; the cup with the elastic cord should be on top with nothing nesting in it. Tie large knots at both ends of the string. Fit the trunk on child’s nose and adjust elastic to fit comfortably around the child’s head. Decorate the trunk with paints or felt markers.

Story Time: The Right Path

Enrichment Ideas

1. Tell the story of how Simon, Andrew, James and John became followers of Jesus, Luke 5:1-11, Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:14-20.

2. Research elephants and do a compare and contrast chart of the two types: What do Asian and African elephants have in common? What are their differences?

3. Read the poem “Holding Hands” by Lenore M. Link (Elephants walking/ Along the trails/ Are holding hands/ While holding tails…). Show children how to “hold hands” like elephants: stand in line with one arm outstretched to touch the shirt of the person in front. Pretend to be elephants walking through the forest/jungle/grasslands/desert as you recite the poem.

4. Other poems to share:
“Elephant” by Nita Jones
“The Elephant” by Hillaire Beloc

“The Elephant Carries a Great Big Trunk”
The elephant carries a great big trunk;
He never packs it with clothes;
It has no lock and it has no key,
But he takes it wherever he goes.
Anonymous

5. Bulletin Board: Cut out an elephant for each child to color. Make paper blankets, decorate and glue to elephant’s back. Or use fabric scraps for blankets. Pin elephants to bulletin board so that their trunks hold the tail of the elephant in front. Option: Use bits of yarn for the tails.

6. Visit the elephants at a nearby zoo.

7. Make a game board: Draw a curving path that looks like an elephant’s trunk. Paint peanuts in the shell for the markers. Throw a die or toss a penny (heads = one space, tails = two spaces) to advance. Option: create spaces that allow player to advance one extra space if they can tell one way of staying on the right path in life.