Mother's Day Art

On Monday my amazing para and I both had a few cute Mother's Day project ideas to do throughout the week.  Unfortunately, I found out on Monday morning that she had to be yanked to cover another classroom (grrrrr!).  I had to find the most efficient way to crank out the majority of both of my projects, a Handprint Poem and a Handprint Bouquet, in one morrning.  About an hour to be exact.  After a little experimenting, I found the quickest and most efficient way that worked for me.

To do both projects you will need five pastel shades of paint.  I used purple, pink, blue, yellow and green.  You will need enough poem sheets for each student (see HERE for yours) and enough sheets of white art paper for each student.  I worked with groups of four at a time.  All paint colors were mixed from basic Tempera colors.

Here's how it works:

 1.  Have children write their name and the year on the poem paper.  Have them also write their name on the bottom of the white art paper.

2.  Paint the right hand purple.  Help the child press their hand down on the poem paper, and put it to the side.  Set the poem paper aside.  Later you will mount it on coordinating construction paper.  Repaint the hand and help them to make a handprint on the upper left side of the art paper, a little more than an inch from the top.  Have child wash their hand, or wipe with a baby wipe.

 3.  When the hand is clean, paint yellow on the left hand and blue on the right.  Have the child press down first with yellow on the right hand side of the paper, about an inch from the bottom.  Have the child press the blue hand down below and in between the first two flowers.  Have the child wash their hands (I always love to have them rub their hands together to watch them turn green, too!).  Allow the paint to dry a bit while you repeat this process with another group.

 4.  Paint either hand pink, and press down in the very top center of the paper.  Wash hands again! (This step could even be done on another day).

Ta-da!  A pretty easy and VERY cute Mother's Day project.  I cranked out 22 of these in a little over an hour (not including the stems and bows), so if you are looking for a last minute project this might just be the one for you.

*Side note:  I keep forgetting to take pictures of the finished poems.  They are super cute.  One of these days I will remember :)