Tag: handprint craft

Christmas

Peppermint Paper Plate Craft

Jennifer
paper plate peppermint craft

This peppermint paper plate craft is fun and easy to make. Plus, you get to use your child’s handprints as the candy’s wrapper! I am a sucker for handprint crafts and I am always looking for ways for my child to personalize the crafts we make together 🙂

Supplies Needed:

-paper plate

-red, washable paint (I like to use Crayola Washable Paints)

-paintbrush

-white paper

-pencil

-scissors

-glue (we used a glue stick, but white school glue is okay too)

How To:

First thing I did was show my son what a peppermint is, because he apparently had no idea that’s what those little mint candies were called! Once he got the image in his mind, his creativity took over. He came up with all sorts of ways to make the candies. We ended up making 2 paper plate peppermint crafts: one with paint and one with a color pencil spiral.

Using red paint, he painted a spiral around his plate. He started in the middle and worked his way around to the outside. It was a little difficult to paint on the ribbed part of the plate. My son had to go back and touch it up a little bit so that it looked more like a solid red line. Then we let the plate dry.

While the plate is drawing, I traced my son’s hands on white paper. Then I cut out the handprints.

My son glued his handprints onto either side of the paper plate to look like the candy’s wrapper. Using a glue stick, rub some glue onto the underside of the plate and onto the handprints to make sure that they really stick onto the plate.

Let your project dry completely before showing off your cute peppermint paper plate craft 🙂

More Winter Crafts!

Christmas Cookie Cutter Coloring: Since my waist line can’t handle too many Christmas cookies, I found another way for my kiddo to use cookie cutters: a Christmas cookie cutter coloring craft!

Fingerprint Winter Tree: finger paint some “snow” on a barren tree!

Sparkly Snowflake: craft sticks, markers, and sequins come together to make an awesome sparkly snowflake craft!

Animals

Handprint Koala Craft

Jennifer

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!

Handprint Koala Craft

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:

The Koala Who Could

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.

Uncategorized

Yummy Fruit-Themed Crafts and Books

Jennifer
Fruit-themed crafts and books

I love summer fruits! Strawberries, watermelon, and raspberries are favorites in my house. We have a raspberry bush in our backyard and the berries taste amazing! All of our snacking reminded me of some fruit-themed crafts and books. My preschooler made a construction paper strawberry and a paper plate watermelon. They were both fun to make and he really liked adding his fingerprints to the crafts.

STRAWBERRY CRAFT:

handprint strawberry craft

I love handprint crafts. They are like a time capsule for your little one. You can look back at them and see how small their hands were.

This craft was pretty quick and easy to make. Supplies needed are red and green construction paper, brown marker, scissors, and glue.

1) First, I drew a strawberry shape and my son cut it out. He added the seeds with a brown marker.

2) Next, I traced his hands on green paper and then I cut out the hand prints.

3) My son glued the handprints on top of his strawberry, and ta-da, now we have a cute strawberry craft to hang in his room!

WATERMELON CRAFT:

paper plate watermelon craft

Isn’t this watermelon craft cute? It looks good enough to eat! My son made this at preschool and was so excited to share it with me when he got home 🙂

To make your own watermelon craft, you need a paper plate, green and dark pink construction paper, glue, and black finger paint.

1) First tear up pieces of green and pink paper. This is fun for kids because how often are they allowed to tear things apart!

2) Cut a triangle shape out of a paper plate to be your watermelon slice.

3) Glue the green paper along the rounded edge of the plate. Then glue the pink paper on the remainder of the plate. Let your project dry.

4) Using washable, black finger-paint, have your child add the seeds with their finger.

BOOKS:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We’ve been eating so much fruit lately, it reminded me of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as the caterpillar eats his way through the story. This book is dear to my heart — I remember it from when my brother and I were kids and I am excited that I get to share it with my son.

This is a must read if you haven’t read it yet. Borrow it from your local library, watch this read-aloud from Brightly Storytime, or buy it on Amazon so you can read over and over again.

To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s affiliate program. So if you buy a product through one of my links, then I get a small percent from the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thanks for your support! Happy reading 🙂

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood

We also enjoy reading The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. This is an older story, but still cute. Kids will be on the edge of their seats as they listen to the story about the mouse who has to protect its strawberry from a hungry bear. Reading this one together is great fun! Check your local library for this book, or you can get it on Amazon here.]

MORE CRAFTS!

My son and enjoy making crafts together! He is so creative 🙂 Check out my CRAFTS Page for more fun ideas and how-tos to spark your kiddo’s imagination. I love pairing books with crafts! As part of my weekly preschool schedule, we read books together and make a craft that goes with it. It is a fun way to help extend the learning 🙂