This week I’m doing a “Big, Grey Animals” Storytime: Elephants, Rhinos, and Hippos. So many great books to choose from! I will post all of my choices later on, but for now, here’s my flannelboard for this traditional rhyme:
Hard to tell, but Elephant #1 is grey. Really.
1 Elephant went out to play
Upon a spider’s web one day
He had such enormous fun
He called another elephant to come.
(HEY, ELEPHANT!)
2 Elephants went out to play
Upon a spider’s web one day
They had such enormous fun,
They called another elephant to come…
etc.
I used a pipe cleaner for the web – it sticks really well. I’ve also used a piece of yarn, tied around the flannelboard. I decided to number my elephants to reinforce numeracy, and I did them in a variety of colors so we could, at the end, talk about them. “What color is number 3?”
Will the spider web hold them all?
Aren’t the elephants cute? I used this clipart elephant as my pattern.
When we get all 8 elephants on the spider web, I give the whole thing a shake and they fall off. Yes, I said 8: I only made 8 because why do we always have to count to 5 or 10? You can make as many as you like.
That's a lot of elephants!
This is also a traditional rhyme in Spanish; here’s the text:
Un elefante se balanceaba
Sobre la tela de una araña
Como veía que resistía,
Fue a llamar a otro elefante!
¡ELEFANTE!
Dos elefantes se balanceaban
Sobre la tela de una araña
Como veían que resistía,
Fueron a llamar otro elefante…
etc.
Here’s a video of me singing the song version, in Spanish, on the StoryBlocks website.
Check in with Miss Mollie’s Storytime Fun later today for the full Flannel Friday roundup!
missmaryliberry.com 
Thanks Molly. I’m confused, though – my English translation (which is not mine, by the way – but I can’t remember where I first heard it) of “sobre la tela de una araña” IS “upon a spider’s web.” I just add “one day” to to make the rhythm work. I am fluent in Spanish and I agree that accuracy is important, so I’m not sure what you’re correcting. Please do let me know if I’m missing something! I appreciate your feedback!
I love the English version of this, but think it should be noted that “tela de una arana” means “on a spider’s web.” Not to be super picky, but if working in a bilingual/latino community, it is important to translate things as accurately as possible. Thanks!
Thank you so much for the awesome spanish translation. I need to brush up. I’m chicken about creating my own translations. This will make it easy to grab n’ go! How I just need to get a Gujarati, Polish, and Korean.
So funny! I used the same pattern for my elephants, but I didn’t convert mine to felt. Love how you used the paint!
How cute! I’m going to have to start brushing up on my Spanish.
Those elephants are really cute! Great to have your video to help learn the correct Spanish pronunciation too.
ACK, oh my gosh! I am in LOVE with this one. I am not kidding when I say I’ve already pulled out my felt to make this (hopefully for next week)!