Children's Handprint Crafts for Every Month of the Year

Over the years through tons of personal experience I have become somewhat of an expert on kids. Through having three of my own and by being a childcare provider for the past 8 years I have spent my fair share of time with children. I am currently a one year old teacher. One of my student's favorite parts of our daily routine is craft time. Sometimes it can be challenging to come up with a craft for every occasion. Even more difficult is trying to find age appropriate crafts for children. So here I have compiled a list of handprint and foot print crafts for every month of the year.

January- Well January can often be a difficult month because there is no holiday in January. So for January I like to do a stepping stone. To do this craft you use plaster of Paris and you pour it into a pie plate. You then let the children make their handprint in the middle and allow them to press colorful stones or jewels around it. Then you simply peel away the pie plate once the plaster has dried.

Another very cute craft for January is one I call "He's got the whole world in his hands". I like this one because it is suitable for just about any age. To make this craft you simply cut circles out of blue construction paper. Then let the children decorate them with green and brown crayons, markers, or torn paper. This is supposed to resemble the world, and you can write "He's got the whole world in his hands" in the middle if you would like, but it looks cute with or without the words. Next you take white, tan, or brown construction paper and trace each child's hands on it. Then cut out the handprints and glue them to the back of the world. The fingers should be pointing out of the bottom of the world.

February- I like to do a Valentines Day card in February. I take a piece of construction paper and fold it in half. On the front I write "Happy Valentine's Day" and then I make the child's handprint on the inside of the card. Below the handprint I always write the child's name and the year. Sometimes I also include a poem on the inside. There are some really cute ones floating around the internet. I like to find ideas on www.DLTK-kids.com.

March- In March I like to do a spring time craft. My favorite is a sun. To do this craft you cut a circle out of yellow construction paper. Then you trace the child's hand multiple times on yellow construction paper. Cut out the handprints and glue them to the back of the circle to form a sun. To add some flare to this you can draw sunglasses and a mouth on the sun.

April- Easter is typically in April so I like to do an Easter tote bag. Simply go to your local craft store and find the size plain tote that suits you. Then let the children put their hand prints on the tote with fabric paint. You can also add the children's names and the year.

May- Mother's Day is the main focus in May, so I like to do a craft or two for the mother's. I typically do a poem that talks about kids messy prints all over the walls along with the child's handprints. There are many options when it comes to Mother's day though. You can plant a flower and put the child's handprints on the pot. You can put the child's handprints on a dish towel, an apron, a pot holder, or a trivet.

June- I like to pay tribute to the fathers in June since that is the month of Father's day. There are just as many options with Father's day as there are with Mother's day. The poem I use for Father's day is one that talks about following in daddy's footsteps and I usually put the kid's footprints on it.

July- Since July is mid summer and you tend to see more bugs in the summer I chose a butterfly to do In July. I trace the children's handprints on constructing paper and cut it out. I then trace their footprint on a different color of paper. Use their footprint as the body of the butterfly. Add eyes and antenna to the foot print. Then glue the palm of the handprints to the back of the foot print on either side.

August- During August I like to do a flower craft. There are two different ways that I like to do this one. One way is to let them draw a flower with a stem and make their handprints into the leaves with green paint. The other way I like to do it is to use their handprints as the flower petals.

September- My handprint craft for September is a family tree. This can be done two different ways. One way is to paint the child's arm brown and then paint their palm and fingertips green. You then write names of their family or simply "mom, dad, brother, sister". The other way to do this is to draw a brown tree trunk and then trace the child's handprint on different colors of paper. Cut out the handprints and glue on the tree trunk then write family members name on each handprint.

October- since Halloween is in October I decided to do a spider for October. For this one you need black paint, white paper, google eyes, and glitter glue. Dip the child's hand in black paint. Then make the child's handprints on paper with the child's wrist touching each other. This makes the spider so that the fingers look like the spiders legs. Then glue google eyes in the middle for the spider's eyes, and draw a web around the spider with the glitter glue.

November- Everyone knows that November is turkey month. To make a handprint turkey you just paint the palm of the child's hand brown and then paint each finger a different color. Put the child's handprint on white paper and then add an eye, two black little chicken like feet, an orange triangle for a beak, and a red squiggle under its beak.

December- There is so many crafts that you can do in December. Two of my favorites are the handprint wreath and the handprint reindeer. To do the wreath you simply trace the child's handprint on green paper multiple times and cut it out. Then you glue them in a circle. You can also use the child's finger and dip it in red paint and put little berries all around the wreath. To make the reindeer you simply use brown paint to make the child's handprint. Then add a red circle at the tip of the palm of the handprint, and add google eyes.