For this project, the parent or teacher paints an unfinished wooden table and chairs a bright solid color. Once it dries, the children make a hand print on it with acrylic craft paint, and the adult writes their names next to their hand prints with a permanent marker. You can use this same idea to decorate a wooden tree swing, bookcase, toy chest, bench or rocking chair.
On a plain white ceramic cookie jar, the teacher or parent paints a large light brown cookie -- simply a circle -- with ceramic paint. Once dry, each child then dips a finger into dark brown ceramic paint and makes a finger print on the circle, creating chocolate chips on the cookie. The teacher or parent then writes all the children's names in a circle around the cookie.
While hand print and thumbprint projects are appropriate for younger grades, this project works well for any age group. Each child draws or paints their self portrait. A parent or teacher then color-copies each self portrait onto iron-on transfer paper, and irons the transfers onto pieces of white cotton fabric. A parent or teacher then pieces the fabric self portraits together to form a quilt, and finishes it out with batting, edging and quilt backing. A charming variation on this project is a "What I Want to be When I Grow Up" quilt, where the children draw themselves as grownups, hard at work at their future careers.
For this project, the children write or sign their names in rather large letters, using a wide-tipped permanent marker, onto an unfinished wooden picnic table. An adult then uses a wood-burning tool to trace over the names or signatures, permanently burning them into the wood. You can leave the table as is, or stain and seal it.
This project is especially meaningful and a real money-maker when created by the outgoing class at your school. Each student creates a drawing or painting and writes a paragraph or two detailing their favorite memory from their time at the school. A parent or teacher then binds them all into a beautiful memory book, and gets the cover professionally imprinted.