My daughter had red paint up to her elbows before I even finished setting out the paper towels. She pressed her hand down on the paper and looked up at me like she’d just invented fire. “It’s a watermelon, Mommy!” And it was. A perfect, sticky, slightly lopsided watermelon slice. That messy five minutes turned…
I was sitting at my kitchen table one crisp October afternoon when my niece asked for a fall craft. I grabbed some orange paint and a piece of cream cardstock. What started as a simple handprint turned into the cutest little scarecrow I’d ever seen. You’re about to make that same magic happen. This guide…
I still remember the first time I made this alien handprint craft with my nephew. We had paint everywhere. His hand was green up to the wrist. But when he saw his own handprint turn into a tiny alien head with big googly eyes, his face lit up. That’s the moment I knew this craft…
Last April, my daughter asked why the sky looks blue from space. I didn’t have a great answer. So we grabbed paint instead. Two little handprints, one blue and one green, pressed together into a wobbly circle. It looked more like a lopsided beach ball than a planet. She loved it anyway. We taped it…
Last October, my kitchen table looked like a pumpkin patch exploded on it. Orange paint on the placemat. Orange paint on my son’s elbow. Orange paint, somehow, on the dog. He pressed his hand down, giggled, and asked to do it again. And again. By the fifth print, we had a mess and a memory….
Last spring, I sat at my classroom table with black paint drying on my hands and a line of five-year-olds waiting for their turn. We were deep into our safari week, and the lion and elephant crafts had already dried on the windowsill. I wanted one more animal to round things out, something a little…
Last December, I sat at my kitchen table with gold paint on my fingers and Christmas music playing low in the background. My son held up his hand, paint still wet, and asked if he was really about to become an angel. I laughed and told him yes, sort of. We pressed his palm onto…
Last January, I sat at my kitchen table with white paint drying under my nails and my daughter’s handprint smudged across the paper twice already. Snow was piling up outside the window. School was closed. I needed something to fill the afternoon that didn’t involve a screen. I grabbed white paint, blue paper, and a…
My sister runs a home daycare, and every fall she does a week of farm animals. Last year, “Old MacDonald” played on repeat for five straight days. By Wednesday, the kids had made cows, and by Thursday, it was pig day. Little pink handprints covered her craft table, each one with a curly tail and…
My son came home from his safari-themed classroom day with orange paint on his shirt and a huge grin on his face. In his backpack was a small paper lion, made from his own handprint. The fingers were the mane. The palm was the face. It was messy and a little crooked, and it was…
My daughter’s preschool class does a garden unit every April. Last spring, her teacher sent home a little red and black handprint on white paper. It was round, a little lopsided, and had five uneven black dots. It was, without question, the cutest thing on my fridge. A week later, we made a matching one…
My friend teaches preschool, and every spring she runs a zoo unit. Last year, I helped her set up a paint station on a Friday afternoon. Fifteen kids came through in under an hour. Every single elephant came out a little different. Some had huge ears. Some had wobbly trunks. All of them made the…