The Kissing Hand: Keepsake Craft, Math, Nocturnal Animals & Cookies

One of the stories we have focused on during our Back to School theme is The Kissing Hand by Audrey  Penn. I LOVE this story as both a teacher an a mom because it lovingly touches on the fears children have when starting school and the Mom who needs that extra kiss while letting her baby go.

We read the story the night before the Lil Divas started school and I gave each of my babies a kiss on the palm of their hand to take with them the next day. My Oldest Diva fell asleep with her palm closed - holding my kiss tight. :)

The next day, after both Lil Divas had been to school we talked about how they felt that morning. I knew I wanted to capture their feelings and that moment so we worked on a simple keepsake craft.

Craft: First Day of School Handprint Keepsake 

What You Need:

construction paper

markers

scissors

glue

What To Did:

1. Let each child trace their handprint (assist younger children)

tracing their hands - they've gotten so good at doing it themselves!

I LOVE their little handprints!

2. Cut out handprints - great scissor practice for those that can do it themselves.

scissor practice

3. cut out a small heart shape

paper heart cutting

4. Glue hand onto paper w/heart in palm. I made a simple template for the Lil Divas handprints. They had to write their name and how they felt on the first day of school (see template in photo below).

A Lil Diva Kissing hand - my favorite kind

I am going to keep these with a few pictures of the Lil divas on their first day of school - a wonderful memento!

I also found some great Kissing Hand/Raccoon Themed Math Printables from Play 2 Learn Printables

The Littlest Diva worked on a clothespin count where she had to count the number of kissing hands and pin the correct number.

clothespin number recognition

The Oldest Diva worked on some basic addition problems. She had to cut out and glue the correct number of raccoons and kissing hands (depicted in the addition problem) and then count them to get the answer to the problem.

addition fun

Science: Nocturnal vs Diurnal Animals Sort

I found a great printable of nocturnal and diurnal animals from Spell Outloud. I laminated the photos, cut them apart and we played an animal sorting game - categorizing the animals into nocturnal and diurnal animals. I was amazed and impressed with how many the Oldest Diva knew - she only got 1 wrong out of the 12 and it was because she couldn't figure out what was in the photo.

nocturnal vs diurnal animal sort

Snack: Kissing Hand Cookies

Kissing Hand Cookies

As soon as I saw these  Hand Shaped Cookie Cutters at Michaels ($.99) I knew we had to make Kissing Hand cookies!! I had seen them on various sites and blogs online and the Lil Divas and I were extremely excited to whip up a batch at home.

You will need a hand shaped cookie cutter recipe like these:

Here's the Sugar Cookie Recipe I used for the cookies & we added Hershey's Kisses Hugs to the palm as the kiss - so cute & the Lil Divas enjoyed making them!

My Lil Bakers

Have you read the Kissing Hand with your child or class? What fun have you had with it?

Bern