I have mentioned here a time or two how much I love keepsake crafts for kids. Of course I love messy process art and all things creative for my little ones also, but now and again there is certainly a place for a good old fashion keepsake craft.
Each year I teach Kindergarten I send my little ones home on the last day with one of these sweet keepsake pillowcase crafts. Of course now, since I am mostly home with my own little ones and only in the classroom once a week, I wasn’t sure if it would work out. But I decided to go for it all the same and the kids loved it!
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This keepsake fingerprint craft is super simple, and always a huge hit with the kiddos and parents alike. It is perfect as an end of the year gift, would be excellent for a camp craft, and would be ideal for daycare, preschool, or any time a group of kids have had lovely memories together.
I purchased a bunch of these bulk white pillowcases from Amazon. In previous years I have asked that each child bring in one white pillowcase for the craft, but this year it was rather last minute!
Next I wrote the cute little verse on each pillowcase in permanent marker:
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I’ll count my friends instead of sheep!
After this I have done different things in different years. For this year, I wrote each child’s name on each pillowcase since we had such a large class. With 30 Kindergarteners it would have taken us ages to have the kids write their own name on each of the 30 pillowcases. Instead, it took me a good evening and a bit of binge Netflix watching.
Then I had the verse and all of the kids names written on each pillowcase in permanent marker. I carefully laid the pillowcases around the classroom and the kiddos went around and thumb printed above their names. We used this fabric paint. I poured in on a paper plate and the kids dipped their thumb in and stamped on each pillowcase. You could also paint it on each thumb with a brush. It was much less expensive than ink and is guaranteed to stay permanently on the pillowcases.
Finally, we went around the pillowcases and turned each little thumbprint into a child! We used skinny permanent markers to add hair, legs, arms, eyes, smiles, bows, baseball hats, etc. I turned my thumbprint into a chicken since my claim to fame was hatching chicken eggs in the classroom with the kiddos.
It was a nice and simple project, even with the 30 kiddos, and I know it is a keepsake craft that will be treasured for years to come.
In previous years I have used brightly coloured sharpie permanent markers and gotten kids to sign each others pillowcases after I wrote only the verse on each.
You could also do handprints, footprints, or anything else you can think of.
We will be doing it next year with our homeschool group as well. So many opportunities for this cute keepsake craft, it really does work beautifully for so many things!
I have created an Amazon list to hopefully make this craft nice and simple for you:
Thank you so much for reading friends. I hope you are having a fabulous start to your week!
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