Mother's Day Handprint Plaque

Difficulty Level:  Easy (some adult assistance is necessary)
Approximate Time to Allot: 45-55 minutes (2 OT sessions)

What you will need:

• 10 popsicle sticks
• paint & paint brush
• Mother's Day poem & a copy with empty lines for student's to copy
• foam paper (for handprint)
• card stock (for background)
• fabric pieces
• heart template
• pipe cleaner (for the hanger)
• craft glue, hot glue & a glue stick
• a permanent marker

Step 1:

Have the student paint 10 popsicle sticks (one side only).

 Step 2:

Next, the student is asked to copy a few lines of the poem from the original, onto the pre-printed poem.  Depending on the skill level of the student, different numbers of lines were omitted.  This particular student copied every third line.  The other lines were covered for the student so that they were able to keep their place as they were copying.  This activity could easily be graded to increase or decrease the difficulty level, depending on the students abilities.

**SKILL ALERT!**  This activity is great practice for visual motor integration and spatial awareness, as well as many functional classroom skills, such as: pencil grip, letter formation, word spacing, and line placement of letters.

 Step 3:

Have the student trace their own hand onto a piece of foam, using a pencil.  This step could be increased in difficulty by having the student trace their dominant hand, or decreased in difficulty by helping the student trace their non-dominant hand with hand-over-hand guidance.

 Step 4:

If the lines are hard to see, the student can retrace the pencil marks with a black permanent marker to make the lines more visible and easier to cut.

**SKILL ALERT!** This is a great activity (along with step 3) to promote fine motor precision and control.

 Step 5:

Cut out the foam handprint, encouraging the student to keep their scissors on the line, and to use their dominant hand to snip and their non-dominant "helper hand" to guide the foam through their scissors (...remember to use kid friendly words!!)

Cutting on foam is great practice for inexperienced cutters as is provides resistance to the scissors, and does not rip as easily as paper!!

 Step 6:

Ask the student to trace the heart template (that was pre-made) onto the backside of small fabric squares of the students choice.  

**SKILL ALERT!**  This is a great activity to practice pressure regulation because the fabric moves easily under the marker.  The non-dominant hand needs to be pressing firmly to hold the template to the fabric, and the dominant hand needs to lightly press on the marker so that it outlines the template without moving the fabric (also great for bilateral coordination practice!!). 

 Step 7:

Cut out each of the fabric hearts, very carefully!

Step 8:

Hot glue the ends of each popsicle stick to the card stock background, overlapping as necessary.  Adult assistance will be necessary during this part of the activity to avoid burns!

Have the student lay out the popsicle sticks to determine where the hot glue will go, so that they are helping with the gluing process.

 Step 9:

Have the student apply glue to the back of the poem.....

...and craft glue on the backside (the side with the lines) of the hand print.  

Then secure both the hand print and the poem to the card stock inside of the newly created frame.

 Step 10:

Ask the student to bend a pipe cleaner in half...
this step can be very difficult for many students as they try to determine where the middle is and how to bend the pipe cleaner there!

Next, place two hot glue dots on the back of the picture frame, and adhere the pipe cleaner.
This step must be completed by an adult.

TADA, the Finished Product:

Hot glue the fabric hearts to the corners (or where ever the student would like to display them), and you have a completed Mother's Day Project!

PS--This project was also adapted for some students who live with a guardian other than their mother
....just by changing the last line of the poem!

Thanks for visiting!  Have a great day :) Erin & Tiffany


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