Something Special ~ Rainforest Thumbprint Art

I love thumb/finger print art so I brainstormed what to do with it for our Rainforest theme. I decided to create a background for the kids with a few trees, and came up with a few sample ideas for Rainforest animals and created idea cards for the kids to share while creating {if you want to print these sheets, download is here}.

What you need:

ink pads {be sure to use washable}, or even finger paint {we used both}
baby wipes-for messy fingers, and paper towels-just to be ready!
sample animals printables {or your own ideas/examples}, we have borrowed Ed Emberley’s great books from the library and really enjoyed them!
printable rainforest tree background {or plain paper to draw your own}
PATIENCE…if you include a toddler in this process. Be sure to have additional ideas to keep him/her busy.

First I showed the kids the examples, also telling them they were free to use them or not-or alter them using their own creativity. I gave them some scrap paper to practice a few on.

Then, I showed them the tree template and let them choose if they wanted to use it. Krash did, Pac did not. K began water-coloring his trees.

Meanwhile, scream-o tot was exploring her finger paint and screaming at me to “wipe da finder” every 2 seconds {about that time I was thinking, “why didn’t I wait until her nap time to do this?”}

PacMan proceeded to draw and paint his background and enjoy adding his rainforest animals to his scene.

Just in case you think she got a grip, here’s proof… it only got worse. I do believe she was doing some sort of yelling, crying, or all-out-screaming the entire time.

She stopped for a few seconds to color some trees.

Then decided she did indeed enjoy this {after the rest of us were all done}, and began to go to the complete opposite extreme-painting herself!

I had walked away to clean up a bit and came back to this. Just seconds before this, she was freaking out about it being on her finger a tiny bit. Here’s a video I took of her silly drama!