The Ballet of the Elephants recounts the true story of the Ringling Brothers' Circus that featured a ballet choreographed by George Balanchine, scored by Igor Stravinsky, and performed by 50 elephants! After reading the story, we listened to Stravinsky's music, Circus Polka.

Then we learned about those remarkable creatures, as we put together elephant puppets. In the spirit of the story selection of the day, our puppets danced to Baby Elephant Walk.

If you would like to make your own marionette, follow the directions below.

1. Take a lunch-sized brown paper bag and roll it into a ball and then open it up. (Elephant's skin is wrinkly and baggy .)

2. Loosely ball up two sheets of newspaper separately and put them inside the lunch bag.

3.  Twist the open end of the bag shut. Knot together a few strands of yarn about 5" long for the tail. To close the bag, run a piece of tape around the twisted end and include the end of the yarn opposite the knot. 

4.  Squeeze off a portion of the filled bag for the elephant's head and wrap a rubber band around it to mark the neck.

5.  Take a strip of paper 1"x12" and accordian fold it. Hot glue a penny to each end. Repeat with another strip of paper. These will be the legs.

6.  Tear each strip in half to make 4 legs. Hot glue the end of the strip without the penny to the elephant's "side." Repeat for the other three legs.

7.  Take another strip of paper 1"x6" and accordian fold it. Trim one end of the strip to look more like a trunk and glue the other end to the elephant head.

8. For the ears, cut two pieces shaped like the continent of Africa with one straight side, and glue the straight edge to the side of the elephant's head. 

9. Paste googly eyes on or draw eyes on the elephant.

10.  Pinch together a section of the bag along the elephant's back near the tail, cover it with a piece of tape for reinforcement, and punch a hole through the section. Do the same thing near the elphant's head. Knot one end of a 36" piece of string in each hole.

11. Hold the elephant by the string so that it is standing on a flat surface. Place the string along the top of a tongue depressor. Adjust the string until the elephant is fairly level. Then tape the string in place. 

12. Put on some music and dance! Dancing on a hard surface will make the elephant sound like it is tap dancing.