I was going to save this activity for my summer newsletter but decided with all the craziness going on now with the Coronavirus, that I would share and add a little fun for kiddos who are off of school due to the virus.

I did this project with my kids back when O was almost 3 and V was almost one. It’s super cute with little hands but could work with all preschool/elementary age kids. 

For each month of the calendar we created a scene with their little hands, fingers, thumbs and sometime feet!  Here is a quick run down of how we did it!

For January:  We did finger snowman on a snowy hill!  Paint their little fingers white and have them press them onto a dark color paper – dark blue or black.  I added the details with permanent markets or additional paint once the fingers were dry.

For February:  We made a love tree!  Paint a hand and wrist with brown and print onto white paper.  Then dip thumbs into red and pink paint and create little hearts on the tree by angling 2 prints together to look like a heart.

For March:  Lucky Lepreachaun!  Paint the palm flesh colored and the fingers (not the thumb) orange.  Press the hand onto white paper.  Flip the paper so the fingers are pointed down, then add a face, hat and words.  The little shamrocks are make with thumbs!

For April*:  Easter Bunny!  I painted her pointer and pinky fingers as well as her palm in pink.  Painted in the body and the grass and basket. Then did kid fingerprints for the eggs! *Can be moved to May if Easter falls later in the year.

For May:  Butterflies!  This time we used feet!  I painted the top part of the bottom of the foot one color and the bottom part another and placed the prints side by side.  Draw in the butterfly body and antenna.  Then we added googly eyes.

For June:  Hand fish!  I think this one might be my favorite page – and we did fish for Father’s Day since our Papa is a big fisherman.  I painted the kiddos hands orange and we printed them sideways on the page.  Add smiles, waves and googly eyes to complete.

For July:  Fireworks!  Painted their hands red and blue and just stamped all over the page until the paint was gone.  I think it had a fun effect!

For August:  For their birthday months, I did just one kid.  August is O’s month, so we created a sunshine with her hands.

For September:  This is V’s month. Keeping with the seasonal theme we did a fall tree with falling leaves.   His little hand and wrist were the tree trunk and his fingerprints were the leaves.

For October:  Feet ghosts!  Painted the bottoms of their feet white and then they stepped on black paper.  Add googly eyes and BOOOOOO!

For November:  Hand turkeys!  Thumb and palm in brown, each of the other fingers in different colors for the feathers.

For December:  Lights and Reindeer!  Upside down brown handprints turned into reindeer.  Finger and thumb prints turned into a string of lights!

I scanned or photographed each of the finished pieces and uploaded them to Picaboo to create a calendar!  It really turned out great and was a huge hit at Christmas!

Why not work on one for your family while you have so much time together!  Best to do a few scenes at a time, start now and you will have plenty of time to complete it for Holiday gifts!