Thanksgiving Handprint Art Activities for Fantastic Holiday Fun (10 Free Printables)
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Thanksgiving handprint art activities are amazing ways to celebrate the holiday with your kids AND create special memories to enjoy for years to come.
This free printable set makes it easy to get started with these holiday fun activities.
Get creative ideas for using these handprint art activities with your kids this Thanksgiving plus tips for keeping it as mess-free as possible!
Easily Add a Special Touch to Your Thanksgiving with Kids
Easily enjoy an awesome activity with your kids this Thanksgiving season– while making super cute keepsakes to delight in for years to come.
Thanksgiving is already filled with fun activities and get-togethers. Family time, parades, and a big feast (or two) make this holiday shine – and usually pretty busy.
Sometimes you need a quiet activity to help your kids slow down, relax, and still have fun (so you can avoid a holiday meltdown).
Handprint art is a wonderful way to boost your holiday celebration with kids. Add this creative activity to your:
- Classroom party
- Family get-together
- Library or community event
- Homeschool co-op celebration
Handprint Art Activities: What Are They And Why You’ll Be Glad You Did Them
To put it simply, handprint art is applying paint (or ink) to your child’s hands (and fingertips) then gently pressing onto paper.
A few of the reasons that handprint art can be super cool are:
- Kids of all ages can enjoy the fun.
- Only a few supplies are needed.
- With a bit of prep, mess (and stress) can be kept to a minimum.
- These activities are such simple ways to create special keepsakes.
- Your kids have so many fun possibilities for creative expression.
Tips & Tricks for Enjoying These Handprint Art Activities with Kids
Sounds like a lot of wonderful holiday fun for kids but not so sure about the mess?
Here are a few tips and tricks to make your Thanksgiving handprint art experiences as relaxing and fun as possible:
- Prepare your materials ahead of time. Suggested materials include:
- Washable paint (or tempura paint, finger paint)
- Foam brushes
- Paint brushes
- Newspaper or plastic tablecloth for quick clean-up
- Hand wipes or baby wipes (to quickly wipe paint off hands and fingertips)
- Crayons and markers (to complete the black-and-white pictures and Thanksgiving phrases)
- Print extra copies of each of the Thanksgiving handprint activities, in case kids want to make more than one.
- Print these activities on white cardstock for added durability (and less likelihood of paint to bleed through).
- Show your kids the color examples of each handprint art activity so they can get an idea of what a final project may look like.
- Remind your kids that each project is meant to be unique and doesn’t have to be “perfect”. Sometimes hands or fingers twitch or move – and that’s okay. Talk about how you can turn the work into an extra special creation.
- When your kids are done with their handprint art project, prompt them to “freeze like a statue” (so you can wipe off their hands before they run around touching stuff!).
- You could add googly eyes or paper feathers with a glue stick or other craft supplies for texture.
- Use a different color or two if you like.
- For a fun project, transform your Thanksgiving art crafts into a card or poem. Turn into Thanksgiving placemats, too.
- Enjoy as educational activities, personal use, holiday preparations, and more.
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What’s In This Free Thanksgiving Handprint Art Activities Set?
This free set of Thanksgiving handprint art activities includes 20 pages with a variety of styles with 10 blank and 10 examples (in color).
The 10 styles (with tips on making) include:
- Always Grateful with turkey and sparkles:
- Paint base of left hand and thumb brown. Press above “Always Grateful”.
- Paint fingers of left hand to represent feathers (colors shown include yellow, red, green, and orange.) Press above brown handprint.
- Use paint brush or q-tip to add legs, beak, and gobbler. Add a googly eye with glue (or use white and black paint).
- Thankful Grateful Blessed with pumpkins and sparkles:
- Paint base of both hands and thumbs orange. Press onto paper above Thanksgiving message.
- Paint fingers of both hands green. Press above the orange handprints.
- Happy Thanksgiving with owl and leaves:
- Paint bottom of the base of the right hand light brown. Then, paint upper part of hand and middle and ring finger medium brown. Paint the pinky finger, pointer finger, and thumb dark brown.
- Place hand upside down and press above the H-A-P of the Thanksgiving message.
- Be kind and grateful today featuring berry sprigs
- Paint left hand green.
- Put one handprint at an angle above Be Kind. Then, place another handprint facing upward next to the first.
- When handprints are dry, add 3 red circles (berries) on base of each handprint.
- Give Thanks with apples:
- Paint base of both hands and thumbs red. Paint pinky fingers and pointer fingers green. Paint middle and ring fingers brown.
- Press both hands above the Thanksgiving message.
- Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart with leaves:
- Paint both hands red.
- Place hands upside down and overlap to form heart in the empty space.
- Choose to Be Happy with Native American and leaves:
- Paint bottom 2/3 of left hand base brown. Add a green stripe (headband) and black stripe (hair). Paint thumb black. Paint fingers to look like feathers (colors shown are yellow, red, orange, and green).
- Press painted hand and fingers on middle blank space.
- After paint is dry, add eyes, nose, and smile.
- Happy Thanksgiving Day with pilgrim hat and leaves:
- Paint left hand black.
- Place hand upside down and press in black space above Thanksgiving message.
- When paint is dry, add brown stripe (hat band) and yellow buckle.
- We Gather Together with corn cobs:
- Paint middle of the base of both hands and middle and ring fingers yellow. Paint outer parts of base of hand and pinky, pointer, and thumbs green.
- Tilt both hands toward the left and press onto space
- There is Always Something to Be Thankful for with acorns and leaves:
- Paint both hands medium brown.
- Place right hand upside down and press into space next to the Thanksgiving message.
- Place left hand to the side above the Thanksgiving message and press onto space.
- When paint dries, add dark brown as acorn caps.
Get Your Free Pack of Thanksgiving Handprint Art Activities
WooHoo! You’re on your way to enjoying special activities for Thanksgiving fun with your kids!
This free pack includes 10 printable (PDF) pages featuring Thanksgiving handprint art activities.
You may print as many copies of these handprint art activities as you’d like to enjoy with your kids. If you have a friend or co-worker who might like to boost their Thanksgiving fun, please share this post. I truly appreciate your sharing!
To get this free set of Thanksgiving handprint art pages, simply subscribe to Rock Your Homeschool.
You’ll receive an email with a PDF file, along with a password to open the Subscriber’s Library to all RYHS free printables.
Plus, you’ll get emails with ideas, resources, and encouragement to make life and learning fun 🙂
(Psst! Current RYHS members just need to access the Subscriber Freebies page and enter the password in your welcome email. If you have any problems or questions, please email Amy at rockyourhomeschool@gmail.com)
Get your FREE Thanksgiving Handprint Art Activities pack by tapping HERE or on the image below.
Wishing you tons of Thanksgiving fun with your kids!
