Parent Appreciation Ideas: Hand Print Art & Poem

My preschool coworkers and I have been “researching” parent appreciation ideas recently. We’re a small, non-profit preschool, so our families pay tuition AND then help us out with so many things (snacks, donating materials, organizing parties, and so on). So our preschool staff wanted to say thank you! This month, we made a cute hand print card with a poem for the parents.

Materials for the Parent Appreciation Handprint Art

If you’re a preschool teacher, you probably already have all of the materials needed for this parent appreciation handprint art on hand in your classroom. But if not, here’s a list of what we used (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):

• Printer
• Copy paper
• Red tempera paint
• Brown tempera paint
• Paper plate
• Children’s decorative edge crafting scissors
• Construction paper
• Glue sticks
• Laminator
• Laminating sheets

Creating the Appreciation Art for Parents

The gift was inspired by a picture A to Z Teacher Stuff shared in an article about Open House. They used the poem a different way than we did, so be sure to check them out. I typed up the poem on a half sheet of paper, leaving room for the hand print to be placed over the poem. The poem is found in so many places, so I don’t have the original source to share with you. If I find the original source, I’ll be sure to come back and add it!

Related: Apple Calendar Numbers

I printed the poems out, then we got to work adding apple hand prints to the poem card. To create the apple, I painted the child’s palm with red tempera paint. Then the bottom half of the child’s thumb was painted brown. I carefully placed the student’s hand down above the poem and pressed down. Then the child’s thumbprint was used to create a green leaf.

Once the hand prints were dried, we used scrapbook scissors around the edge of the paper. Then we glued the poem and hand print onto a piece of construction paper and laminated it. I know I’m biased, but I think they turned out great!

Here are a few more parent appreciation ideas to check out:

• Teacher to the Core’s thank you notes and hand soaps
• Delightfully Dunn’s kid-decorated pitcher and lemonade
• Third Grade Thinkers’ chalkboard-painted planter
• Tunstall’s Teaching Tidbits’ “refreshing” parent gift

What parent appreciation ideas do you like the best? Please feel free to leave some of your ideas in the comments below! I’m always on the lookout for more!

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