This started as a small craft and ended up living on our front window for nearly a month. The idea is simple: tape a sheet of clear contact paper to the window with the sticky side facing into the room, draw the outline of Elmer the Elephant on it, and let a small child cover the inside with colorful pom poms. The pom poms stick on their own, peel off cleanly, and rearrange as many times as a child wants. A free-form, reusable, low-pressure piece of process art that doubles as a quiet half-hour of fine motor work. Ages 2 to 5.
Why Elmer
Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, by David McKee, is one of those picture books that does not get old. Elmer is a multi-colored elephant who learns that what makes him different is also what makes him loved by his herd. The patchwork pattern of his coat is also a gift to anyone running a craft for small children, because there is no wrong way to color him in. Every square can be any color. The book itself has a dedicated celebration day, Elmer Day, on a Saturday in late May, which is a good moment to make one of these if you are looking for an excuse.
What you need
- A sheet of clear contact paper, the self-adhesive plastic film you can buy on a roll. Cut a piece about the size of a sheet of paper.
- A printable Elmer outline. Free outlines are easy to find online if you search for Elmer coloring pages and pick one with bold, simple lines.
- A black permanent marker.
- Masking tape to hold the contact paper to the window.
- A box or basket of small craft pom poms in as many colors as you can find. The more colors, the better.
Making the outline
Print the Elmer image and lay it flat on a table. Lay a sheet of contact paper, still with the backing on, over the print. Trace the outline of Elmer onto the top side of the contact paper with the black marker. The lines do not need to be perfect. Children do not care, and a slightly wobbly Elmer is part of the charm.
Sticking it to the window
Now peel the backing off the contact paper and tape it onto the window so the sticky side faces into the room. This is the bit that feels slightly wrong the first time you do it. The contact paper looks the same on both sides, but only the unpeeled side will catch pom poms. A few strips of masking tape around the edges hold it flat against the glass.
Hand over the pom poms.
The actual play
Once a small child realizes that a pom pom pressed onto the sticky paper just stays there, they are gone. The first few will go anywhere, often outside the outline. Within a couple of minutes the placement gets more deliberate: one pom pom in each square, no two of the same color touching, working out from the middle.
The fine motor work in this is quiet but real. Picking up a pom pom with a pincer grip, pressing it onto the sticky surface, peeling it back off when it lands in the wrong place. All of that uses the same grip and aim that show up later in writing and dressing. Working on a vertical plane, with both arms raised, also stretches shoulder and upper-arm muscles in a way that floor and table work does not.
Why it stays up
The accidental best part of this craft is that it does not have to be finished in one go. The contact paper stays sticky for a long time. A child can leave the project for a day and come back to add, change, or peel. We left ours up for the better part of a month and the pattern shifted every few days. Process over outcome, in the most literal way.
For another book-themed craft that turns into a play set, our make your own Supertato uses a real potato, a few strips of tape, and a red felt cape to do the same trick from a different book. And for a quieter sit-down option in the same age band, our free animal coloring pages give a child something to color when the pom poms go back in the basket.