Hands up!

Thursday we declared as a get-your-hands-dirty kind of day and after a trip to a bookshop and a wedding store in the neighbouring town of Busia, we had had all the supplies we needed to create handprint masterpieces.

The kids rotated in ten at a time and chose two colours of paint. We painted their hands one at a time and encouraged them to put their hands to paper in whatever orientation they wanted.

It was fun to watch the kids’ reaction to the whole process. Some were stoich, not really sure what to make of this, others were intrigued by the feeling of the paint between their fingers, others giggled as the tickly bristles ran over their palms, some were excited to get their turn while others seemed stressed out having been burdened with the responsibility of complete creative liberty.

Some thought for a great deal of time before placing their hands just so and others squished all their fingers together and slapped their hands down quickly in a big beautiful mess. It was the ones who colored outside the lines so to speak, the ones who turned their pages upside down and backwards, the ones who wrote their names vertically, between their fingers, or up the side of the page, that kept me smiling all day. I have included many sample creations below because I think that they will make you smile too :).

In addition to putting handprints to paper, everyone added their handprint to a school banner. From the students, to the teachers, to the kitchen staff, everyone got in on the action!

Joanne, from the sewing/tailoring class, provided the finishing touch by hemming the sides and adding button holes to the corners to allow it to be hung proudly in the school’s front entry.