This hand print tree may not be something unique, but it’s fun and an excellent addition to your list of fall activities for preschoolers! There are so many options for creating a fall tree, but I finally settled on a basic finger and hand painting that the students can complete independently. This project is a great way for children to visualize the changing of the seasons. On top of that, it’s a rich sensory experience when they get to use their fingers and hands to paint. Yes, that does often equal messy, but that doesn’t bother me too much!
The set up for this one is pretty straight forward. And I only used a handful of materials (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post). I grabbed some brown tempura paint, paint brushes
, white construction paper, and baby wipes (for the mess). Of course, seeing the paint, many of the children came over and wanted to know what I was doing. Can you tell they love art?! I called children over one at a time to paint their hands and talk about fall trees. For the first few, I experimented with painting their forearms for the trunks — that didn’t come out so well, so I stuck with just painting the trunks with a brush.
Once the “trees” had dried, the children came back to paint the leaves. I set out yellow, red, brown, and orange tempura paint for the children to use. Going along with the hand print trees, I had the children paint fingerprint leaves. It was really entertaining to see how each child approached the leaf-painting! Some went a little wild, painting leaves over every inch of the paper, while others were much more precise and kept the leaves on the tree.
Once everything dried, Mary Poppins and I used the trees to create a “forest” on our bulletin board. So cute!!
If you’re looking for more hand print art, please check out:
- Duck on a Bike Story Retelling and Hand Print Art
- Easter Egg Hand Prints
- Hand Prints in Preschool {Beginning of the Year}
- Hand Print Art for Thanksgiving
- Child-Made Fingerprint Flowerpot for Mother’s Day
- End of the Year Portfolios
Shared at The Kid’s Co-Op, Discover and Explore: Fall
Done-for-You Preschool Resources
Planning meaningful lessons for students week after week while balancing other teaching responsibilities and your personal life can be a daunting task. That’s where Preschool Teacher 101 comes in to save you time!
Preschool Teacher 101 has created some amazing preschool lesson and activity plans that will be perfect for your classroom. Click on the image below to learn more about some great fall-themed resources.
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Love this! Happy to have found your blog!
Thanks for popping by! I’ve been having fun checking out your blog, as well!
So cute! My daughter was looking at the Kids Co-op linky pictures and pointed at this one, out of allll the pictures, and said, “Look momma, a tree! Can we make a tree?!” So I think you have the official stamp of approval from a 3 year old and a happy momma! 🙂
How cool, Laura!! A 3 year old’s stamp of approval is very important — thank you for telling me! Totally made my day!!! 🙂
Handprint art is classic fun- always popular with the kids and they make great mementos for parents 🙂
so cute! feel free to post to the Fall Crafts Blog Hop today! http://www.sugartot.net/my-blog/2013/10/fall-crafts-blog-hop.html