Leaf Handprint Thank You Cards
The best attitude is gratitude! Some may think it’s old fashioned, but I am still very much a fan of sending people Thank You cards in the mail. Instead of writing a card myself and signing my little one’s name, I decided to get her involved in the process.
I know what you’re thinking. There is no way a 17 month old understands the concept of a Thank You card. You are probably correct! But she had a blast doing it and it will brighten her grandparents day when they receive a letter with her name as the return address.
We have been slowly diving into art projects over the past few months. I started her off with water painting because I was avoiding the inevitable mess that real art supplies would surely bring. Once she began to get bored, we moved onto the chunky toddler crayons. She still enjoys coloring with crayons but I decided it was time to throw caution to the wind and break out the paint once and for all.
Turns out, it was very fun and the clean up was a breeze! I wanted to be able to combine the Thank You card project with creative free play. We started with the handprint activity on the card stock and then she had the butcher paper underneath to go wild. She loved it!!
There were endless opportunities for learning and development that flowed naturally during this activity. Here are some examples:
1) Color recognition - we have been working on this mostly with matching and sorting activities. During this project, I had all the paints lined up and would ask her, “do you want green?” She would either say yes or no and then get super excited when I dispensed the color of her choosing.
2) Language development - a huge focus for us! Several times throughout this activity, H would sign and say “more” when she ran out of the paint that she was using. She was even using word approximations for blue, purple and yellow by the end of the activity when I would ask her “more what?” Too cute!!
Signing “more”
3) Sensory experience - she loved using her fingers to swirl the paint on the paper and stamping her palm around to create various color “leaves”. Towards the end she was also scratching the wet paint with her nails to create different designs!
4) Fine motor - we also used some paintbrushes and sponges with thicker handles. She found the different textures fascinating. It is also becoming more apparent that she is going to be right handed!
Overall, I would say it was an afternoon well spent and the finished product came out great! After the paint was dry I flipped it over and wrote little thank you messages on the back.
Update: Chris did a similar activity with her the following day while I was at work and he said that it held her interest for OVER AN HOUR. A 17 month old. Doing the same activity for over an hour. I am pretty sure that means you have to try this one at home!! Happy painting!