January 12: Polar Bears!

Messy fun!

Getting the hand full of paint.



Making the print.

We pushed our project day up a few days since I'm going to be gone on Friday.  It worked out that Koen was home from school by the time we got to work on our project, so he got to participate, too! 

Last week, we made footprint penguins, and after we finished that Ty asked to make polar bears next.  I didn't have the materials ready, but I'd seen an example of a handprint polar bear on the Handprint and Footprint Art website, so I'd promised Ty we'd make polar bears this week.  Unfortunately, I didn't take the time to review the website post before we did the project, so we missed a few details, but they still turned out pretty cute. 



I made the first one, showing the boys what to do.  Both boys surprised me by smearing their hands in the paint with no hesitation.  They both made a white handprint on blue paper.  After washing hands, Ty said, "Let's make a black bear!" so the black paint came out and we smeared our hands in black paint.  Ty and Koen were ready to make blue, red, and green bears next, but it was time to get ready for bed so we simply left our papers on the table to dry. 



Koen's polar bear.



Ty's black bear.



The next morning, I double-checked the website so I would know how to draw all the details on the handprint to make it look like a bear.  It was at that time I realized I'd missed using their fingerprints to make ears and a tail, but we managed to finish our bears anyway.  We used a thin-tip permanent marker to draw on the bear claws, ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. 

They boys really enjoyed painting with their hand, and I have a feeling you'll be seeing more handprint and footprint projects in the future! 



Adding the details.