Making handprint molds creates a memory for the children and their families and can be given as gifts for parents on holidays. To make a simple mold, roll out pieces of clay, let the children press their hands into them and then paint them when dry. You can also make a handprint mold using plaster of Paris. For this craft, pour the plaster into a pie tin, allow children to imprint their hand and wait a day for it to dry. For safety, make sure to wash the childrens' hands immediately after they make the print.
Every holiday brings creative ways to depict festive themes with tiny handprints. Teachers can design Santa hands by painting the fingers white for a beard, the palm peach for a face and the wrist red for a hat. Once dry, children can draw on the details of Santa's face. They can also trace their hands and use them as reindeer antlers or Christmas tree and wreath branches. For other holidays, teachers can paint hands to represent the American flag, a menorah, Thanksgiving turkeys or spooky spiders.
Children can make a rainbow craft by painting their hands in a variety of colors and stamping an arch across the page one color at a time. They might even paint multi-colored stripes on one hand to make a rainbow print. Guide children in tracing and cutting handprints in many colors and pasting them onto a paper to represent flowers. They can also cut out a vase shape to hold the floral handprints.
Once children stamp a page full of painted handprints, encourage them to draw features onto the prints to represent different animals. They might draw a trunk and big ears on an upside-down handprint to create an elephant, or a mane and tail to make it look like a horse. For another animal craft, allow children to paint their hands and press them down together to resemble butterfly wings. When the paint dries, they can use markers to add the features on the butterfly.