Hopefully the parents of children in my classroom will heed the title of this post and not scroll down to see the gifts we have been busy making for them. I know that a vast majority of my readers do NOT have children in my class and do not even know me in real life. So........for those of you who fall into that category, I wanted to share the parent gifts we are making because they are turning out SO cute. In fact, I am thinking about doing these with my own little boys for grandparent gifts this Christmas. So.......stop reading this Mom and Dad!!
As a mom I truly treasure every craft project that involves my children's hands and feet. It makes me so wistful and sentimental to see something made when their hands were so very small. That is why I chose this project as a parent gift. I am pretty sure most mommies (and daddies) will treasure this gift for years to come.
I started out by having each child (in turn) remove one shoe and sock. I then painted the bottom of their bare foot with white tempera paint as shown in the following two photos. This was a wonderfully fun sensory experience for the children. I had just recently painted their hands for our Thanksgiving cards, but painting their bare feet was a whole other deal. Surprisingly, not one of them refused to allow me to paint their foot. I think they were intrigued by the complete novelty of having their teacher paint their foot!
After applying the paint I quickly helped them press their foot onto a piece of snowflake stationary. I had a tub of warm soapy water right next to me on the floor and after making their footprint, I had them dunk their foot in the tub. While they "soaked", I quickly sprinkled white glitter onto the footprint while it was still wet. Have you figured out yet what we are making?
After glittering the footprint, I had one of my little assistants (AKA one of the many children who were standing around watching this whole process) place the paper onto our drying rack. Then I proceeded to give the child's foot a little "bath" to get all the white paint off. I had some towels on hand to quickly dry off their foot, then I sent them on their merry way to put their sock and shoe back on while I prepared to paint the next child's foot. To paint 55 feet took me most of the class period on Monday morning, Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon.
After the footprints dried overnight, the children sat with me one at a time to decorate their.......did you guess?.............SNOWMAN! We used very small black pom-poms (5 mm size, I think, from Michael's) for the eyes and mouth, orange craft foam for the noses, stiff glitter felt for the hats, and plaid flannel for the scarves. I just free-hand cut the hats and noses. I cut very thin pieces of flannel for the scarves and tied them in a knot. Then I trimmed off the loop so it would look like a knotted scarf on the snowman when it was glued down. Each child also got to choose two buttons for the snowman's tummy. These are SO adorable. I am so happy with how they came out.
Our final step was to place the snowman pictures into black document frames that I ordered from Dollar Tree. Then the children helped wrap them up. They were so excited and proud to have a special homemade gift to give their parents. (NOTE: We attached a name sticker with the child's name to the bottom of the paper. In the photo below I have covered the name with a Post-It note to maintain confidentiality. I just didn't want you to think that was part of the project.)
Your snowmen are really cute! I have also seen Rudolph made out of painted feet...just like the snowman...just in case you need a new idea for next year. :)
Posted by: Michelle | December 16, 2010 at 08:19 AM
You are so sweet!I think a lot of people just really dont get blogging and how much great information is out there.The parents who do read the blog really do appreciate it and are kind enough to tell me so! Thanks so much for your kind words. I am in theMidwest, but in Iowa, not Ohio. Best of luck to you with your two little ones. Im a homeschool wanna-be!
To: directress@live.com
Posted by: Laura | December 10, 2010 at 12:12 PM
You are amazing! I just love reading your blog and always am eagerly waiting for the next post. To think that every single parent of a child in your class is not enthusiastically following your blog just blows my mind! I am always so shocked when you mention that not many (if any) of "your" parents read your blog. So I just wanted to let you know how much I personally appreciate your blogs. I homeschool my two young girls and your blogs help me immensely with our activities, etc. You've given me so many great ideas! And I don't know where you live, but if your school is in the Columbus, Ohio area by chance, let me know. We can't really afford it right now, but I would find a way to get my girls into your class!! :) Merry Christmas!
Posted by: Hope Jordan | December 10, 2010 at 09:12 AM