Mother’s Day Handprint Flowers

I have my daycare children make some sort of handprint Mother’s Day cards every year.  They are adorable, quick and it’s sweet to see how much their little hands have grown from the previous year.  The handprint flowers are very easy to do if you have young children in your care.  I’ll get my group set up with finger painting materials while I work with each child individually.  Toddlers have their own ideas on how they like to paint so I give them some paint and let them do their own experimentation.

Some of my kids don’t like to get their hands covered in paint and insist on using a brush. That’s fine with me.

As long as they are happy painting their own pictures I can then sit down with one child and ask them to space out some handprints on a clean sheet of paper. That’s how I get handprints that are primary coloured and not mud coloured. I find if the kids have had a chance to do some free style painting before I ask them to do a few teacher directed handprints they are more willing to follow my suggestions.

If you have a child that doesn’t like to press their hands into a tray of paint for a print you can also use a brush to apply the paint onto the palm of their hand. I’ve had children in the past who don’t like the feel of messy fingers at art time.   I’ll demonstrate on my own hand first.  Laughing and telling them the brush tickles my fingers helps to get them giggling with me. This is usually enough to convince the ‘neat and clean’ children to give the brush technique of handprints a chance.

I’ll also give the child the brush and have them apply the paint to their other hand.  This puts them in control of the paint and sensation of the brush on their skin.

Need an idea for a Mother’s Day gift to go with your handprint card?  Click on the picture to find out how to make this easy twig vase.

Happy Mother’s Day crafting!