Welcoming Spring with Fingerprint art!

images from crafty-crafted.com and housingaforest.com

One set of my preschool kids (I teach at two centers currently) are really into trees and following the Project approach and reggio emilia philosophy of preschool, we are exploring trees, gardening and birds based on their current interests. I’m excited to maybe plant a tree with them for the project :) and we’ve been spending time in their garden watering the seedlings. I’ll blog more on that later on, but this blog will be exclusively on the wonders of fingerprint art!

Kids are all about exploration and experience and using different colors of stamp pads and their best art tools (their fingers and hands) makes for a very exciting project. The kids were preoccupied for thirty minutes or more. They were able to make good observations about the sizes of their prints and explored some handprints as well. Their language and storytelling abilities came to life as they tried to explain the many different colors of leaves on their trees.

Their learning experience gets extended with questions. Ask them about leaf colors, leaf sizes and how many leaves are there. One of my preschoolers filled the ground with thumbprints and exclaimed that it was “fall” and leaves fall as a result of the fall season. One student put different color leaves and talked about leaves changing colors. It helps their language skills and their learning concepts as well.

Try it with your students, children and maybe your younger cousins or siblings. You’ll find that you get to know more about them when you plan meaningful and intentional activities for them! Also, try it yourself, it’s a cool way to express art and color!