Hand print and leaf stickers autumn Tree

After we came back from vacation, CJ had to step into the next milestone, Kindergarten. Its a real big school experience and change not only for her, for us too. She was away at school for full day and that came very difficult on me.
Sigh! She is growing and I have to move on with her. When we got the school papers filled, there were few forms for parent volunteers. I asked CJ whether she will be happy if I come to school to help her teacher. CJ was excited and said "yes mommy, yes mommy". So I signed them up, at the time i was not sure what type of volunteer work.

We had discussion about the parent volunteer in the parent Teacher conference. I told the kindergarten teacher about my blog and she was very happy to hear about it. She said "If you are interested you can come and take craft session for the kids". Wow! that sounded exciting and immediately we were all set for the craft sessions on Fridays. CJ's teacher also mentioned her favorite blog "I heart Crafty things" written by a well known fellow blogger. I was so happy to hear that, and was excited for Rachel. BTW, Have you visited her blog, Do stop by her crafts are awesome,simple and creative. She has a wonderful collection of simple paper plate crafts.

Though I had opted to do a craft session with the kindergarten kids, I was worried and tensed because it was my first time handling a bigger group, 21 kids. I was relived when the teacher said I can take small groups of 6 to 5 kids and rotate. Now for the craft, what do I make with them, what will interest the kids in the class. The teacher said I can make a Fall craft with the kids. I was searching for a simple Fall craft and time was also a constraint, 15 mins for each group. When I saw the Foam Sticker fall tree from puttisworld, it sounded fun. Dollar store near our area didn't have the fall sticker may be they were out of stock. So I got a box of leaf foam stickers from Walmart. We also got few packets of fake fall leaves from Dollar stores.

Craft: Hand print and leaf stickers Autumn Tree

Materials used:

Brown and Blue Construction paper
Leaf foam stickers

Glue stick
Child Safe scissors
Fake Leaves
Pencil or marker

Steps Overview:

1. Trace the kids hand on a brown construction paper.
   
   Some of the kids traced their hand with out help. Some of them asked for help
2. Let the kids cut along the traced shape of hand.
   
   It was fun to watch them cut. Some of the kids where able to do it in a jiffy. Some of them where little slow and needed help. But they enjoyed doing the craft. Some of them cut the fingers from the trace. I was not worried about the final look, I let them create their own art
3. Glue the hand print trunk to a blue construction paper.
4. Peel the backing from the stickers and glue. Glue the fake leaves too
   
   I gave them a handful of foam stickers and the fake leaves. They glued to their heart. Some of them wanted the leaves on the tree. some of them wanted them on the ground
5. Let the art works dry
   
   We had 15 mins for each group of kids. Most of them finished within 10 mins and were asking me what to do. So I gave them crayons and asked them to add-on sun, grass, a girl/boy whatever they wanted.

The Art work of the kids