Lend a Hand

What You Need:

• White paper
• Green tempera paint
• Large paintbrush
• Glitter glue (4, or more colors)
• Metallic paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Glue
• Construction paper (brown)

What You Do:

1. Ask your child to count her fingers out loud from one to five. 
2. Help her to paint her hand and press it in the center of the paper to leave a handprint. Turn the paper so the fingertips are pointing down.
3. Have her cut out a base for her tree from the construction paper and glue it in place under the fingertips.
4. Encourage her to choose one color of the glitter glue to begin with and create five lines of garland with it on her "tree." She should count each line of garland aloud as she's creating them. Repeat this with another color of glitter glue.
5. Have her create five Christmas ornaments, each with a different color glitter glue. Repeat this process again with as many colors as she likes, counting each ornament as she creates it, and changing colors when she reaches the number five.
6. Ask her to draw and cut out a five-pointed star using the metallic paper. Glue it on the top of the tree.
7. Have her finish off the project by writing the year at the bottom of the tree on the construction paper using the glitter glue. Alternatively, she can write her name to personalize her tree.