Easy Christmas Crafts: #10 Robin Handprints Activity

We are down to our last 3 crafts – Christmas is well underway!  Today’s craft is one that you can get your students involved in!  In fact, their little hands are essential for this one!

I have decided to make my handprints into a proper canvas painting, but these ever-so-easy prints could be used to make cards, classroom decorations and so much more…parents just love this kind of memorabilia too – they are so cute and pretty for display and keepsakes.  I hope you’re as convinced as me about how great they are – here’s the list of what you will need to get making these adorable prints(!):

And this is how we made ours:

1. To start, you will need to prepare your canvas – draw on some branches for your robins to sit on in dark brown/black – if you are not confident, you can sketch them in pencil first (it will rub out!)
2. Now it’s time to get those hands soaked in paint!  Paint the hand brown using lots of paint, leaving the center of the palm unpainted.  Then fill in the center of the palm with red paint for the robin’s red breast.
3. Allow your students to print their robins onto the canvas, sitting just above the branches.  Repeat step 2 & 3 for each student.
4. Using a mixture of yellows an greens, allow students to dip their fingers in the paint and make fingerprint leaves for the branches  (you could use oranges and coppers for Autumn, greens and yellows for Spring, or leave the branches bare with glitter frosting for Winter).  Wash all those little hands and leave the paint to dry overnight.
5. When dry, use a permanent black marker to draw on the robins feet.  I drew a little tail shape around the thumb print to add to his silhouette, but you may use your own artistic license!  You could also add red glitter to the robins breast if you wanted to add a little extra festivity!
6. Lastly, add each students name below their handprint and date the canvas.  You now have a wonderful festive keepsake to proudly display!

Ours is displayed in the entrance hall for all to see!  The students really enjoyed making this and they loved seeing it all develop from messy hands into a painting to be displayed prominently!