Post Father's Day Gift

Okay - I am well aware the Father's Day is over and done with. However, I never shared my project that I did with my students. So despite the holiday being almost a full year away, I present you my project.

 Let me start by saying in my head when I first planned this project, it was SUPER cool! Seriously. Super. Cool. Then we actually started the project and I thought maybe not so super cool after all. However, my students loved it and in the end, I was back to thinking super cool. So all is well. Okay, now I really will present the project.

My original idea was to have students imprint their feet into the stepping stone. Which is why I bought the 12x12 stepping stone molds. In the end, I went with just hands. The molds worked perfectly. I was a bit scared that the cement would dry and the mold wouldn't come off but my husband (who was a big contributor to this project) just had my students grease the molds with olive oil. No problem. The molds came off. Since I had only 16 students, I bought 8 molds and completed this project over two days. Half the class one day and the other half the next day.

 

My husband came and mixed together quick cement in a bucket and filled the greased molds to the brim. He smoothed it off and we had them set for about 25 minutes. After they set for a little, the students stuck their hand prints into the cement. They had to press down fairly hard. This is also when they would have used the letter stamps but I decided not to do that. I had the molds stay outside for 2 hours before having the students carefully carry them up the stairs to dry on the back table. The next day, the stones were completely dry.

My amazing husband, who facilitated this project.

 Now that the stones were dry, I let the students use acrylic paints to color their hand print. This was a last minute idea.....originally we weren't going to paint them at all, but I felt they needed something.

Pre-paint

The painting was a big hit - the kids loved it and even added messages, initials and dates to their stones. Once that acrylic paint dried, I used a clear coat and covered the stone a few times to give it a shiny appearance. I'm really glad I stuck with the project. I heard positive reviews from not only the kids (which I expected - they love to get dirty) but also from the parents. I even had one student who went out and purchased a mold and is going to make more for his family's garden. So this is not only a great Father's Day project but also an anytime project!

What type of Father's Day projects did you do?