The National Teacher Appreciation Week is almost here! Today I’ll share with you a super easy and personal craft for your teacher, which you can do it with your kids in 1 hour. It’s Teacher Appreciation Simple Handprint Card!

Every year I get excited to come up with fun and unique ways to say “thank you” to our educators. I would go as far as say that we should show love and appreciation for our teachers every day of the year.  But having an official designated week of appreciation is certainly a wonderful reason to shower our hard-working teachers with a little extra attention. It’s also a great excuse to get creative and make some fun crafts with the kids!

Today’s craft is very simple and fun to make for both kids and adults. Who doesn’t remember tracing their hands and drawing all sorts of things on them when they were younger? I certainly do! Oh, the fancy nails and the multitude of rings I would draw for my dainty hand. Imagination had no stop signs there! No wonder this is such a popular craft to this day. Kids simply love it.

On our teacher appreciation simple handprint card, each finger has a description or fun memory of the teacher told by your child. The “palm” of the hand has a message and a wish from you! It is totally customizable. You can be creative in your own way and add whatever you feel like to your card.

This simple handprint card is unique and very personal not just because it’s your child’s traced hand, but also because of the memories and thoughts your child shares about his teachers.

Teacher appreciation simple handprint card

Supplies:

• A piece of paper and a pen
• Card stock (color of your choice)
• Markers or pens
• Scissors

Steps:

We did the whole project on 1 evening, while taking breaks for snacks and conversations. If your child has a good attention span and only 1 teacher, then I am certain you can finish it in under 1 hour. If you have more than one child and more than one teacher for each of your children, then you may want to split the project in 2 sittings, so it’s not too tiring.

1. Talk to your child about his/her teachers.

Since there are 5 fingers on each hand, you should have at least 5 things or descriptions about each teacher. If it’s hard for your child to come up with things to say about each teacher, then you can help him/her out by asking specific questions.

“Is Mrs. A. kind? In what way? Does she help? What makes her smile? How does she make you laugh? Etc.” During the conversation, listen to your child’s answers and stories and write them down. Not only will it help with your cards, but it will be a cherished memory to preserve for posterity!

If there are repeats, don’t worry! My son had 3 teachers, for example. And even though I encouraged him to think about each teacher and come up with different descriptions for each, all three were “kind” in his words.  And I think that’s wonderful and endearing. Don’t complicate it because, in this case, simple is best!

2. Take your child’s hand and trace it over on the cardstock.

I traced it with a black sharpie and cut it out outside the lines, so that the edges are more distinct.

3. Cut it out using scissors

4. Write the teacher descriptions on paper fingers.

If your child is capable, then encourage him/her write 5 favorite or descriptive things about each teacher on each paper finger. Help with spelling.

If it’s too hard for your child, then you can certainly do it yourself, too.

5. In the “palm” of the hand write “High-five for a great year!”

You may add any other sentiment you would like to include or write something entirely different.

We wrote: “Dear Mrs. So-and-so, High-five for a great year! Thank you for your hard work! Love, Nick and Co.”

6. Attach the handprint card to your gift, bouquet of flowers, or just hand it in as is.

All are great gestures and ways of appreciating your teacher! We put ours inside the Teacher’s Gift Tote.

We love Teacher Appreciation Week around here and look forward to creating fun and memorable cards and gifts for our educators. Our goal is to make crafts that are unique and personal, but also easy and fun. I hope you liked today’s craft: Teacher Appreciation Simple Handprint Card.

Looking for another easy and fun craft, check out my post Apple Stamp DIY Teacher Appreciation Card.

Come back tomorrow to see our Ultimate Teacher Appreciation Gift Tote idea. It’s one of my favorite Teacher Appreciation gifts to date!