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Hand art activities are always favorites with young children. They alkso lend themselves to making Calendar Art, when you want to send home a monthly calendar.
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SNOW MITTEN DECORATIONS
- Take a large paper plate and pour some red or blue paint on it.
- Have your children place their fingers together and take turns pressing their hands into the paint.
- Then have them press their hands, fingers still closed, down onto a piece of paper.
- When the hand prints are dry, cut each print out and use them as a mitten boarder around a bulletin board or around a door or window.
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VALENTINE HUG CARD
- Have children take turns placing their hands onto a piece of red construction paper while you draw around their fingers.
- Cut out each child’s hands and give the hands to the children along with a 2” x 14” piece of red construction paper.
- Have children fold the ends of the paper strip back 3” on each end.
- Next, have them glue their hand cut outs to the two flaps on the card, so that hands touch in the middle.
- Then give each child a strip of paper, approx. 2” x 4”, that has the following valentine greeting printed on it.
Roses are Red, Violets are blue.
Here is a Valentine, Hug for you! |
EVERGREEN BRANCHES
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Set out some green paint a paint brush and some large sheets of paper. |
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One at a time have children come up and put on a paint shirt. |
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Then have them paint a hand green and press it on a piece of paper. |
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Have the child continue painting hand prints across their paper, overlapping the prints to create an evergreen branch. |
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When their paintings are dry, give your children some small colorful paper circles to glue onto their evergreen branches for tree bulbs. |
Extension: When the tree bulbs are dry, let your children smear glue on each bulb and sprinkle on some glitter.
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EVERGREEN TREES
You will need some heavy green paper and some small safe scissors for this activity.
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Cut the green paper into 6” x 9” rectangles. |
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Fold the rectangles in half lengthwise. |
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Then cut across each rectangle (left bottom to right top) to create a triangle. |
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Give each child a paper triangle. |
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Have children keep their triangle folded then fringe the unfolded side, cutting from the outside edge towards the center fold (at an angle upward). |
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Have the children open their triangles and bend the cut “branches” out a bit, then stand up their trees. |
Extension: Let your children spatter-paint white snow onto their trees.
Extension: Have your children glue their trees onto sheets of construction paper or pin them onto a group bulletin board.
Extension: Wrap bottom branches towards the back and tape them together to create a finger hole, to create a tree finger puppet. Add a smiley face on the front of the tree puppet.
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KISSING SWANS |
| Here is a different hand art activity for Valentine’s
Day. |
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Cut a large heart shape for your child from a 12” x 18” piece
of red construction paper. |
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Set out some white tempera paint. |
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Help your child by painting each of his hands white. |
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Then, have him spread his thumbs out so they are touching
each other at the top (like two swans kissing). Their other
fingers will represent the swan’s feathers. |
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Have your child, then make an impression of his hands in
the middle of his red heart shape. |
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When he lifts his hands off of the paper, he will find two
white swans kissing.
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HOLIDAY WREATH
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Make a 5 inch wide, heavy white paper wreath for your
child. |
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The easiest way to make the wreath, would be to place
a cup upside-down on a piece of paper and draw around
the cup. This will we the center of the wreath. |
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Next, remove the cup and measure out 5" at certain
points all around the circle and then draw another circle
5" out from the smaller circle. |
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Finally, cut out the wreath. |
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Take a paper towel and fold it in fourth and lay it
on a small plate. |
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Next, pour some green tempera paint
on the paper towel. |
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Have your child dip her hand into
the paint and make hand prints all around the wreath in
one direction. Overlapping handprints look best but individual
ones are ok, too. |
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Tape on a red bow when the wreath
is dry and then, hang it up. |
Variation: Instead of a wreath, you can make
a holiday swag by cutting out whatever shape you want from heavy
paper and having your children make green bough prints all over
it. |
SNOWFLAKES
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Set out a small plate with a folded paper towel on top. |
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Pour some white tempera paint on the plate. |
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Give your child a piece of colored construction paper. |
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Have him dip his hand into the white paint and make
4-6 hand prints on his paper - in a circle from an imaginary
center. Fingers should point outward from the center. |
Variation: These large snowflakes are pretty
as is or you can let your child sprinkle on some white or clear
glitter when the paint is still wet.
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DOVES OF PEACE
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Set out some paints or watercolors and have children paint a 9” x 12” piece of paper with bright colors. |
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When the paint is dry, set out a shallow pan of thick white paint. |
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Have children take turns dipping a hand in the paint and then making an impression on top of their painted papers. (Their hand should be held with thumb out and other fingers together, with hand tilted to the side. |
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The impressions should resemble white doves. |
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When dry, take a thin black pen and draw a beak, an eye for each dove.
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