Left Hand, Right Hand - Homemade Game

The kids helped me make this really easy homemade game for learning the difference between Right and Left.  I used L's hand and a large ink-pad to make stamps of her left and right hands on a large sheet of paper (you could use paint as well, although I imagine that will be messier).  Then I cut out little "L" and "R" cards out of an index card and asked her to figure out which hand she used to make each of the handprints (this wording is important, because if you look at the palm of someone's hand facing you, it will be the mirror image, i.e. opposite hand, from yours).  I wrote 'L' and 'R' on her hands in washable marker to help her remember which was which:

L did a great job with this activity, repeating it several times.  We also played a game where I asked her to touch her left/right ear, eye, knee, foot, etc.. or do different actions with her left/right hand, and she enjoyed this quite a bit too.  I'm not sure she could identify left from right without having the letters written on her hand, but we'll keep practicing.

Of course, I couldn't take out the ink-pad without letting the kids have some free exploration with some animal stamps:

I took out a marker and drew some smiling-faces on some of the fingerprints and handprints on their paper, and L wanted to try too:

Aren't these cute?  L (31 months) made the faces all by herself - she's been making 'realistic' drawings since she was younger than 2 years old.  E tried to make a face but when it didn't turn out, she gave up and decided to build a tower with the stamps instead:

I love how each twin has a different personality, different strengths, and different interests.

 

Impressionist Fingerprint Art

Today we made some impressionist-inspired art using our fingers.  The supplies we used included contact paper, ink pads, painter's tape, coloring sheets, and white paper.  It's a simple concept, but the results were wonderful (especially if you have kids who like coloring in the lines).

First I put the coloring pages on the girls' table, and then placed the contact paper on top - sticky side UP.  L helped me put blue painter's tape all around (basically taping the contact paper to the table, with the coloring page underneath).  After that, I gave the girls one color of ink at a time and told them to color the picture using the tips of their fingers:

L was very good about coloring in the lines.  I did help her by asking her which section she wanted to do next and what color it should be, as well as lend the use of my fingerprints to help her finish.  Meanwhile E decided to be a little more creative:

 Her baby chick (toy) wanted to use his feet on her artwork as well.  Once the girls were done, we removed the painter's tape and stuck the contact paper on top of a sheet of white paper so we could see the final masterpieces:

The masterpiece above was made by E and Baby Chick.

This was L's artwork (with a little help from Mommy).

I made the artwork above when I was trying out this technique to see if it would work 

before presenting the activity to the girls (Mommies like to play too!)

I've seen coloring books of famous artwork, which would probably turn out gorgeous using this 'impressionist fingerprint' technique for older kids or even adults.  Mandalas could be beautiful this way too.  This is absolutely an activity we'll be repeating in the future.

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