Believe it or not, Christmas is coming soon and as parents of young kids, we know the best presents are kid-made Christmas gifts! Spend some quality time with your kids creating these adorable Salt Dough Handprint Ornaments to give to loved ones during this holiday season. Not only will your friends and family love receiving child-made gifts, but this is also a great sensory and fine motor activity for your children!
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Let's Create Christmas Handprint Ornaments!
If you like baking and working in the kitchen, kids love exploring it too so you'll definitely enjoy today's activity! Get the materials ready and join us in creating Salt Dough Handprint Christmas Ornaments!
Materials for the Salt Dough Handprint Ornaments:
- 2 cups of flour
- ½ cup of salt
- ¾ to 1 cup of water
- parchment paper
- cookie sheet
- non-stick rolling pin
- oven
- straw
- knife
- ribbon
- paint brushes
- acrylic paint/paint pens
Procedure for making the Salt Dough Handprint Ornaments:
Step 1 Preheat your oven to 200F. Meanwhile, mix the flour and salt together. Slowly add the water until the mixture is soft.
Step 2 Mix it well. You can use the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer or your hands to knead the mixture for 5-10 minutes. Next, place it on parchment paper. Use a non-stick rolling pin or a rolling pin lightly coated in flour to roll your dough out to about ¼” thick. You can also use a glass bottle to flatten it.
Step 3 Take your child’s hand and firmly press it into the dough and then use the knife to cut around it.
Step 4 Bake it for 1-2 hours or until fully done. Let it cool, then use a straw to poke a hole in the bottom of the palm.
Step 5 It’s time to decorate! I did three designs but you can pick and choose which designs you’d like to do. For the reindeer, you will need light and dark brown, black, white, and red paint. For Santa, you will need red, white, and black, and for the penguin, you will need black, white, and orange paint. You can draw the design for your kids to paint you can or you can just let them do it themselves and see how it turns out!
Reindeer
Paint the fingers dark brown and the palm light brown and let it dry. If you only have one shade of brown that’s okay too. Once it’s dried, paint a red oval for the nose, two white ovals for the eyes, and a black smile. Let that dry and finish off the eyes by adding two black circles inside the white ones.
Penguin
Paint the whole hand black and let it dry. Once it’s dried, paint a white circle in the middle and add the eyes and an orange triangle for the beak.
Santa
Paint the hand white and let it dry. Once it’s dried, paint ¾ of the palm red, and leave the bottom of the thumb white for the pom pom on Santa’s hat. You can use a pencil or pen to outline the bottom part of the palm to resemble the fluff on Santa's hat. You can put a circle of light brown or pink for Santa's face or you can just add eyes and a mouth on the bottom.
You can also add a ribbon and your child’s name and get them to give these to loved ones this holiday! If you have other designs in mind, you can also give them a try! This will also help your little ones develop their creativity.
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What skills will your child learn in making Salt Dough Handprint Ornaments?
The idea of kid-made Christmas gifts might make you think they need to look exactly like what they’re supposed to, but keep in mind these are made by preschoolers and as long as they try their best they’re learning! It might not look like a reindeer or Santa but it’s the thought that counts. Your kids will have so much fun making handprints and painting them for their loved ones. Painting is a great way to practice fine motor skills and making handprints in the salt dough is a fantastic sensory experience.
This is also a fantastic opportunity to talk about Christmas and why kid-made gifts might mean more to family and friends than something store-bought.
Aside from sharing crafts and educational resources, My Pre-K Box creates an exciting, educational box for preschoolers with themed math and literacy activities! Preschoolers will love play-based learning and parents will love the easy, open-and-play format! You can get one by subscribing to My Pre-K Box - the best subscription box for preschoolers! We deliver these no-prep learning kits to busy families, and kids are so delighted with all the new surprises they receive every month!
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Let's Connect!
We absolutely LOVE seeing your preschoolers learning through play! Please take photos and videos of your child's finished product or them making their Christmas salt dough handprints and share them with us on social media using the hashtag #myprekbox! Also, if you aren't already, be sure to LIKE and FOLLOW us on Facebook and Instagram for more fun activities to do at home with your little ones!
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