Your child will create adorable “baby footprints” using his hand and fingers! The footprints can decorate the front of a card as a special Mother’s Day gift for mom. Any mom would love a nostalgic reminder of her child’s cute small baby feet!
What You Need:
- Tempera paint, any one color
- Paper plate
- Paper
- Construction paper for a card (optional)
- Note: This project is messy; have soap and water handy for washing paint-dipped hands!
What You Do:
- Pour the tempera paint into a puddle on a paper plate, with the puddle large enough to fit your child’s fist.
- Have your child make his hand into a fist. Have him rub the “pinky” side of the fist in the paint puddle. When he then “stamps” his fist onto paper, it creates the shape of a baby size footprint!
- He can make “toes” for the footprint by dipping his thumb in the paint and stamping it on the paper for the big toe. He’ll dip his forefinger in paint and stamp it on paper for the second toe. The middle finger creates a middle toe, the ring finger creates the fourth toe, and the pinky creates the pinky toe!
- With his other hand’s fist and fingers, he can create the other baby footprint in a walking pattern next to and slightly above the first “footprint.”
- Repeat steps #3 and #4 for as many footprints as he would like.
- When he has the hang of it, fold construction paper in half to make a Mother’s Day card. Let him create walking baby footprints on the front of the card.
He may want to write a note inside the card to thank mom for helping him learn to walk and grow, or for caring for him since baby days. Mom will love it!
By Beth Levin
Beth Levin has an M.A. in Curriculum and Education from Columbia University Teachers College. She has written educational activities for Macmillan/McGraw-Hill and Renaissance Learning publishers. She has a substitute teaching credential for grades K-12 in Oregon, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.
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