In my YOUNG AT ART class we read Elmer the Elephant and made elephant masks.
Silly teacher that I am, I pre-cut the masks out for the kids and had them color them in.
They did a nice job.
But you know when the really shined? When I showed them how to cut eyes out themselves! I gave them a ton of round cardstock, a bunch of kid-friendly scissors, and some oil pastels. And they went MASK CRAZY!
