Painting a Handprint Christmas Tree for Kids
Whether you're a parent or you work with children, engage the young ones during the holiday season by creating a handprint Christmas tree craft with paint. Children enjoy putting their creativity to use, and they gain a variety of benefits from creating crafts, including language and fine-motor development. While creating this craft, teach the children about the tradition of Christmas trees. Use the completed crafts to decorate your home or classroom, or give them as one-of-a-kind gifts.
Things You'll Need
- Newspaper
- White paper
- Paper plate
- Green paint
- Gold or yellow paint
- Various colors of paint
Instructions
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1
Cover a flat surface with newspaper to protect it from paint. Place a piece of white paper on top of the newspaper. Standard-sized 8 1/2-by-11 construction paper or artist paper is ideal.
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2
Pour green paint onto a paper plate. Use washable green tempera paint or finger paint.
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3
Instruct the children to dip one hand into the green paint. Have them press their hand on the surface of the paper near the right edge; have them position their hand so that it's facing either up or down. Instruct them to pick up their hand and create three more handprints in a row in the same direction as the first handprint, for a total of four handprints.
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4
Have the kids recover their hands with green paint and press them onto the paper above the first row of handprints, centered above the first and second handprint. They should create three side-by-side handprints in this row.
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Instruct them to continue creating green handprints on the paper to create a triangle formation or Christmas tree shape. The next row should have two handprints, and the final row should have one handprint. Set the paper aside to allow the paint to dry for a period of 12 to 24 hours.
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Dip a paintbrush in gold or yellow paint and paint a star shape on top of the handprint Christmas tree formation.
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7
Use various colors of paint to create different shaped ornaments on the Christmas tree.
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Tips & Warnings
Instead of a paper craft, create a handprint Christmas tree on a T-shirt. Purchase a plain white T-shirt and use fabric paint instead of tempera or finger paint.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
