Elephants are grey, right? Not in new children’s app Elmer’s Photo Patchwork they’re not. Released by developer Touch Press, it’s based on the popular children’s books character.

This isn’t a book-app though. Instead, it’s a creative app for decorating the assembled elephants using the camera of the iPhone or iPad that it’s running on.

“Use your camera to take photos of interesting shapes, colours and textures and add them to your elephant’s patchwork pattern,” explains its App Store listing. Above is an example we made while wandering around our back garden.

There are 10 elephants to decorate, each with four patchwork patterns. The app is simple to use too: your child simply taps on the elephant they want, then taps on a section of their skin to turn it into a camera viewfinder. Another tap, and the photo is captured to decorate that section.

Touch Press suggests that children might want to take photos on specific outings – “your trip to the park or your visit to the museum” – to remember them in elephant form. And we all know what they say about elephants and memories…

What we like about the app, which is aimed at 3-8 year-olds, is its emphasis on getting children looking at the world around them, rather than simply down at the screen. It reminds us, in a good way, of some of the work that another developer, Curious Hat, has been doing with photographic apps for kids.

Elmer’s Photo Patchwork costs £1.99 for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store.