I say this every time I post a handprint craft, but I just love handprint crafts! They are a time capsule of how small your child’s hands were and they made each craft personal and unique. Our handprint koala craft was fun and easy to make; we love the fluffy ears!
Supplies Needed:
- gray paper (or white paper that you color gray)
- brown paper
- white paper
- cotton ball
- scissors
- glue
- pencil
- crayons
How To:
Trace your child’s hand on gray paper. We didn’t have any gray paper so I traced my son’s hand on white paper and he colored it gray. Next, draw a koala head. Cut out the handprint and the head.
Whenever we see koalas at the zoo they are always up in a tree so we made a tree for our handprint koala out of brown paper. Glue your tree on your paper slightly off center to allow more room for your handprint to fit on the side of the tree. Our tree looked too plain so we added a couple limbs to it.
Now to make the koala! Glue the handprint on the side of the tree with the 4 fingers touching the tree and the thumb facing up. The handprint is going to be the body of the koala and its arms and legs. Now glue the head onto the thumb. Ta-da, you have a koala! My son drew on 2 eyes and a nose with a black crayon to make the face. We ripped off a little bit of cotton fluff from a cotton ball and glued the fluff onto the ears to complete our koala.
More Koala Fun:
Pair this craft with a koala book! I highly recommend Rachel Bright’s The Koala Who Could. This is a story about Kevin the Koala who is so fearful of the unknown and change that he misses out on a lot of fun. One day, change happens to Kevin, and guess what, he survives just fine. He learns that no matter what we do to try and prevent change and hide from the unknown, change is an inevitable part of life. And sometimes, change can lead to even more fun! This story is such a great example for kids to be brave and try something new.
