Last spring, my neighbor’s daughter ran over with a beetle on a leaf. Then she held up her drawing and asked, “Is my bug real too?” Hers had four wings and eight legs. We laughed. Then we counted together. That moment gave me this idea. This bug handprint craft turns one traced hand into a…
Last summer, I knelt in my friend’s garden bed with her four-year-old. He grabbed a green top and pulled. Out came a long orange carrot, still dusty with soil. His eyes got huge. “It was hiding!” he said. I went home and tried to copy that moment with paper. This carrot handprint craft is the…
Last winter, I read a Dr. Seuss story at bedtime with my niece. The next morning she stopped at the recycling bin. She pulled out a cereal box and asked if the Lorax could use it. I laughed, then said yes. We cut it up and made a paper friend with a big yellow mustache….
Last Sunday, I traced four hands on the same sheet of paper. Mine, my sister’s, her son’s, and the baby’s. I only wanted to test the outline. Then I lined them up and stopped. The hands stepped down in size like a family photo. One looked like a mama whale. One looked like a calf….
Every December, I made a handprint wreath with the little ones in my life. We hung it up. Then I packed it away in January and never saw it again. It felt like a waste. Small hands only stay that size for a short time. So I tried something new. I built one paper base…
Nothing happened. I opened the folded page and found a blank, empty puddle. The red paint had dried before I closed the paper. Omar, age 4, looked at me and waited. It was a rainy afternoon, and we had one more sheet of cardstock. This time I folded fast. The page opened with a pale…
A few days before Easter, my neighbor’s daughter Mira, age 5, came over to craft. She made a bunny handprint and was proud of it. But it was only a picture. Then she held it up and asked, “What does he eat?” I wrote a 3 on the page and told her he wanted three…
My nephew Rayan, age 4, and I had just read “Mouse Paint” on a Saturday morning. He wanted to make a mouse. I painted his hand grey, and he pressed it on a plain sheet. The print looked like a grey smudge. He frowned and asked, “Where does he live?” That question gave me an…
My niece Anika, age 2, came over on a rainy afternoon. I wanted to try a handprint butterfly craft for toddlers with her. I painted her hand and pressed it down. She pulled away too fast and wiped the paint on my sleeve. The second print landed on top of the first. We got a…
Last spring, my class kept watching a bee outside our window. I wanted a craft that did more than look cute. So I painted a small hand yellow and pressed it sideways on paper. A fuzzy bee body appeared. The kids giggled. We added stripes, wings, and a big smile. Then each child wrote one…
Last October, my preschool class begged for something spooky. I did not want scary. So I pulled out black paint and white paper. Each child pressed one hand, then the other. The prints looked like wings. Someone yelled, “Bats!” We added ears, eyes, and tiny fangs. Then we hung every bat on a dark wall….
Every June, I wonder what to give my dad. He already owns every golf shirt. One year, my niece pressed her red hand beside a tiny pole. It looked like a flag waving over the grass. We wrote a silly message across the top. Dad framed it and hung it above his golf bag. He…