doodlebugs 7.9.10, leaf & hand print trees

scrolling through the usual blogroll the other day, i came across this via the crafty crow. although the initial description of "kids' crafts" gave me the shivers, i'm sure she didn't mean it that way. ;-) looking past that, i thought the trees were pretty cool. for art group, we did our own version using tempera paint and real leaves. in their usual innovative style, the kids all came up with quite a variety of ways to approach the materials.

opting out of the handprint trunk, eric chose to use a small sponge to make the trunk and glued on the actual leaves, rather than using them in paint to make a print.

leif also created a sponged trunk and did use the leaves (heavily laden with paint) as stamps.

sam was pretty interested in the rest of the kids, but did let me get his sweet little handprint on paper.

and there you have it, young artists' handprints enveloped in leaves. gotta love that.
we read the giving tree by shel silverstein as our opener. i'm a softie, and i always have to choke back the tears on that one.