An Endearing Book & Fingerprint Unity Art!
After reading Barack Obama’s “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters” we decided to create Thumbprint Unity Art! We used cardstock paper and a watercolor palatte. I’m excited to walk you through how we made this simple & meaningful art, so let’s get started…
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Summary of “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters”
“Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters” by President Barack Obama and beautifully illustrated by Loren Long is an endearing book that features a wide range of Americans and their contributions that have helped shape our nation. Each one is highlighted under a trait that he admires in his own children. The illustrations capture the personalities of each of these Americans and there is also a parallel childhood figure of each which is quite exquisite. As the pages turn, the group of children who began with Malia & Sasha Obama, grows and grows until the final pages showing a gorgeous representation of diversity.
We loved this book so much we bought a copy. If you’ve been following us for a while you know we borrow a ton of books from the library. So much so that the library has designated a shelf for our holds lol. So needless to say, this book is very highly recommended!
We are celebrating Black History Month by following along with @hereweeread ‘s brilliant “29 Days of Black History” FREE printable wonderfully designed by @whimsicaldesigns_bycj. This book is one of many that we’ll be reading this month, check out our Black History Book List here & join us!
How We Made Fingerprint Unity Art…
We tend to keep the activities as simple as possible around here. We’re not interested in complicated or costly. We are also all about fostering independence. For this activity we simply moistened our watercolor palette with water. Placed our thumb in the palatte and made prints on the paper. We went through each color until the entire paper was full and represented diversity and inclusion. Yes, this Fingerprint Unity Art is that simple!
Wait?!? Am I Supposed To Be Making One Too?
I highly recommend getting hands on and doing art projects with your child. If you’d rather not, thats okay too, but please do not correct anything they do. If you want the art to look a certain way – make your own.
Especially if your child is little, its okay if it doesn’t turn out the way you imagined. Maybe its what they imagined. Also, its a process. They are learning. They will learn more through trial and error than if you correct them or do it for them. All they will learn if you “help” is that they didn’t do a good enough job on their own or they can’t do it; not exactly the message you want to give your kid. Am I right?!?
Believe me, I know it can be really challenging to let them make “mistakes”. Try doing the project along side them. It will allow you to focus on your own work, give them appropriate modeling of how to use the materials, and show them that you like art too! A lot of what I talk about in “What about the Sensory Mess?” applies to Art projects as well, you might wanna check it out! I love how each art has its own identity. I would suggest Fingerprint Unity Art if you’re looking for a simple and meaningful art activity to connect with your child.
Materials We Used
- “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters” book (from the library or buy one here)
- Watercolor paint
- Water
- Cardstock paper
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
How to Make Fingerprint Unity Art?
- Moisten the watercolor palette.
- Place your thumb in the watercolor and stamp it on the paper several times until the color wears off.
- Place your thumb in the same color or another color and stamp it on the paper several times until the color wears off.
*TIP: Start with yellow so it doesn’t get murky if the colors mix. - Continue doing this until the paper is full of color and representative of a diverse crowd of people.
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
Wait, There’s More…
I believe you can easily strengthen communication skills and foster independence all while playing and connecting with your child. To help you do this; I’ve created a FREE printable for each activity called, “Communicating & Connecting”.
It will give you a list of suggestions I’ve found very helpful as a Mom & as a special education teacher; to help you build lifelong skills. Please don’t feel obligated to do everything on the list (but if you do, you’re a rockstar 😉 ).
As a Thank You for subscribing; this is a special FREEBIE for our Email Subscribers Only. 🙂 Click here if you’ve already subscribed. Otherwise, Sign Up below to get the password & access to our entire FREE Printables Library today! 😉
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