Elmer Archives - HodgePodgeDays

AD – Given Press Tickets for review purposes. Not paid.

Based on the classic children’s book series by David McKee, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is on at The Lowry on 19th-21st February. I took the boy along to the first showing of this cheery production aimed at pre-schoolers.

Elmer is a vibrant, funny and kind elephant. He’s different from the other elephants in his herd and he’s not sure he’s happy about that. He tries his very hardest to blend in, unsuccessfully, so he meets up with some of his animal friends who help him to realise that being different is just fine.

Review: Elmer The Patchwork Elephant at The Lowry #AD

Along the way he meets singing frogs, a giraffe, a lion, birds, monkeys and zebras. Soon his herd start to miss him, rejoining them Elmer realises that his friends have always valued and loved his unique personality and appearance.

Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is around 50 minutes long. It’s lively and engaging, with catchy songs, brilliant puppetry and some audience participation. The set is colourful and simple, the puppets are great fun, but the puppeteers are what makes the show. All of them were dressed in safari clothes and blended in beautifully. It’s always the mark of an accomplished puppeteer that you watch the puppet and not the person.

We really liked the songs, they’re the kind of thing we could listen to in the car and sing along to on long journeys. There were some funny moments, some touching moments and a lot of feel good stuff too.

My son is 8, but he enjoyed it, he understood the message, loved the songs and his favourite bit were the monkeys. We left with a smile on our faces and chatted on the way home about what made us different and how we could celebrate and appreciate those differences.

Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is a lovely show which is ideal for pre-schoolers and young ones. It’s left us with a serious case of the warm and fuzzies.

Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is on at The Lowry from 19th-21st February this year. For more information or to book tickets, visit The Lowry website.

Note, we were given press tickets for review purposes. I have not been paid for this post.

Whenever we go into a supermarket the small boy always heads for the magazine stand and spends some time weighing up his options before choosing a children’s magazine to take home. When he was younger I used to have to hide it away until we got home or he’d trash it in the car, but these days he sits beautifully in the back of the car pouring over the contents and deciding what he’s going to colour in or put stickers on when we get home.

This month a brand new children’s magazine has been launched by award winning pre-school publisher, Redan Publishing Ltd. They publish a whole range of kids magazines which you will be familiar with, such as Peppa Pig Magazine, Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom Magazine as well as Friends Magazine and Favourites Magazine – all of which we’ve bought and read a number of times.

The new publication, Fun to Learn First Friends Magazine, is aimed at pre-school children aged 2-4 years. It contains stories and activities featuring popular children’s TV characters including, Elmer, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Spot, Woolly & Tig, Abney & Teal amongst many others.

Fun to Learn First Friends Magazine

This lovely magazine encourages learning through play, with easy to follow stories and fun activities, including early learning crafts, letters, counting, making, matching, puzzles, colouring, all of which are great for a spot of stealth learning and for sparking a bit of creativity.

The first edition of the monthly Fun to Learn First Friends Magazine costs £2.99 and is published on 8th July. It comes with a free gift of a Very Hungry Caterpillar Tea Set, 33 stickers, an Elmer height chart, a Spot the Dog poster and the chance to win a Gruffalo Trunki.

Fun to Learn First Friends Magazine

As you can see, the small boy really enjoyed Fun to Learn First Friends Magazine, he loved the activities, especially the colouring in. He liked the Spot the Dog poster and he really, really loved the little free gift of a tea set. It was the perfect activity for an afternoon stuck in the house.