Things to Make - Hand-Print Puppets

As I mentioned on Monday, a few weeks ago F tried finger and hand-painting with paint (sometimes they hide from mess and sometimes they embrace mess). After she made a few handprints, she remembered that in November her teacher taught her how to trace her hand to make a turkey. So we traced her hand, but she decided she'd rather make a hand flower (??) pictured above. While F colored the flower, she asked me "what else can we make when we trace our hands, mom?" I'm not very spontaneous, so questions like this can be tough for me. But luckily I remembered making siloutte puppets as a child and we started making different shapes with our hands then tracing them. Using this method we created - octopuses (octupi?) with the wrong number of legs, crocodiles, dinosaurs, whales, and more. Both girls started making up stories for all the animals, so we decided to add some popsicle sticks and turn our hand-print creatures into puppets. A totally spontaneous afternoon, with F's prompting of course, and so much fun.

Here's the scoop:

1. Trace the outline of your hand or your child's hand. Try making different shapes out of your hand then tracing. For example, separate your middle and pointer finger to make a "fish mouth."

2. Cut out the traced hands. Try to think of an animal that looks like the figure you cut out. The kids had a great time with this part.

3. Color

4. Add popsicle sticks with tape to the back of your new puppets.

5. Assemble a puppet show. Plot is optional.

OTHER ART IDEAS FROM AROUND THE WEB:

*I love these tie-dyed coffee filter easter eggs at Chocolate Muffin Tree.

*Homemade puffy paint looks fun.

*I love this rainbow crayon resist painting project.

*As I'm obsessed with cardboard tubes lately, I think this toilet paper snake looks awesome (and fun).

*This paint chip easter garland is so pretty.