Hands and feet is a popular topic in the early years and offers many opportunities for exploring the usual themes around size, shape and pattern. However, it also lends itself well to some more creative activities that aim to get children thinking. The following ideas range from the simple and straightforward to the more challenging and thought-provoking.
SIZE, SHAPE AND PATTERN
Hand and foot printing can be used for a variety of activities.
Handprints Cut out colourful prints to create collages.
Footprints Provide poster paint and large sheets of paper for children to walk on to create patterns; cut out footprints for the children to arrange in order of size.
Fingerprints Provide finger paints for children to make patterns and pictures independently; provide examples of repeating patterns for the children to recreate.
Possible learning outcomes
M Using everyday language to talk about size
M Creating and describing patterns
EAD Experimenting with colours and printing
WHOSE FEET?
Make a matching game. Make and laminate some cards featuring pictures of animal footprints on the front with the name of the animal written on the back. Make another set of cards featuring pictures of the animals for children to match to the prints.
Adult role
- Have some close-up pictures of the animals' feet to show the children.
- Talk about the features of each foot: look at the size and shape; talk about hooves and claws; look at how many hooves and claws each animal has.
Possible learning outcomes
UW Making observations about animals and talking about why they have particular features
GOING SHOPPING
Set up a role-play shop that sells shoes, boots, slippers, socks, gloves and jewellery for hands and feet.
Adult role
- Join in with the children's play and engage them in discussion and sustained shared thinking. Examine the features of the footwear and gloves and ask the children to consider their different uses and purposes. Look at the jewellery and ask the children to think about who might wear each piece. Make this easier by using story characters. For example, consider which ankle bracelet a princess might choose, or whether a particular ring would better suit a fairy or a goblin.
- Help the children measure each other's feet and choose appropriately sized shoes. Model the use of mathematical vocabulary to describe and compare size.
Possible learning outcomes
M Using everyday language to talk about size
UW Talking about features of everyday objects and how they work
THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
Set up a crime scene, for example, a burglary. Open a large cupboard and make it look like someone has been rifling through it. Use some boots with deep treads to set a trail of muddy footprints leading from an open door. And leave fingerprints over the cupboard doors. Do this by using an ink pad or by colouring on paper with a pencil, pressing your finger on to it and then on to the cupboard door.
Set up a crime lab
- Create a fingerprint database. Ask colleagues if they would allow you to fingerprint them. For each record give the owner of the prints a name and criminal record.
- Collect a range of footwear, dip them in mud and make prints. Photograph each print and the corresponding shoe/boot to create a file of footprints. Using the same names as for the fingerprints, allocate a name to each record so that each footprint can be matched to a set of fingerprints.
- Ensure that the prints on the cupboard match the footprints on the floor so the children can easily match them and find the culprit.
Adult role
- When the children arrive at the setting explain what has happened. Gather them somewhere away from the scene so as to preserve the evidence. Divide them into small groups and assist them in their investigations.
- Provide role-play uniforms for the investigators.
- Provide clipboards, pencils and paper for them to make notes.
- Provide digital cameras for them to take photos of the footprints and fingerprints.
- Help them to print these pictures and display them on a board.
- Provide Sellotape for children to stick over and make impressions of the lead pencil fingerprints.
- Once all the evidence has been collected, help the children compare their findings with the database of records and ascertain who the culprit is.
Possible learning outcomes
PSED Developing confidence to talk about ideas
CL Developing explanations by connecting ideas and events
L Retrieving information from a paper database
L Ascribing meaning to marks they make
UW Using digital cameras and printing pictures
UW Noticing detailed features in the environment
MORE IDEAS
- Make it look like fairies visited in the night. Use metallic paint and put tiny little footprints around the setting. Sprinkle glitter around. Allow the children to use their imaginations to come to their own conclusions about who the prints belong to and what went on.
- Invite someone in to explain the meaning and significance of Mehndi patterns. Ask the visitor to show the children how to create the patterns. Provide paper templates of hands for the children to create their own.
SONGS, RHYMES AND GAMES
Catch Use balls or beanbags. The game can be played in various ways: in pairs throwing to each other or in groups passing around a circle. Otherwise gather a safe number of children together and ask them to walk around within a defined space. Ask them to watch out for each other and listen for their names. Then call out a name and throw the ball/beanbag to that child. They then do the same by passing it to someone else.
Hopscotch Settings based on school premises will probably have access to hopscotch grids painted on playground floors. Otherwise simply draw out a hopscotch game using playground chalks in the outside area. Mark out games of varying difficulty, from a straight line of boxes numbered 1 to 5, to a full traditional layout of boxes numbered to 10. Use a beanbag to make it easier for the children to throw accurately into a chosen square.
Wind the bobbin Sing this rhyme with accompanying actions:
Wind the bobbin up, wind the bobbin up (wind hands over and over)
Pull, pull, clap, clap, clap (pull hands apart and clap)
Wind it back again, wind it back again (wind hands over and over in opposite direction)
Pull, pull, clap, clap, clap.
Point to the ceiling, point to the floor,
Point to the window, point to the door.
Clap your hands together, one, two, three
Put your hands upon your knee.
RESOURCES
Gather the following resources to support the suggested activity ideas:
Printing Paper, poster paint, scissors and finger paints
Role play Collections of accessories that can be worn on hands and feet. For example, gloves, bracelets, rings, shoes, boots and socks. Include items that might be associated with various activities like tap dancing, hiking, or gardening.
Also a till, rulers, foot measurers, labels, shoe and jewellery boxes
Catch and hopscotch Games equipment including various sizes of balls and beanbags and playground chalks
Crime scene Variety of boots and shoes, mud, ink pad and lead pencils
Whose feet? Card, laminating equipment, pictures of animals and their footprints. Find some good examples produced by the BBC and The Woodland Trust on the Internet: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/wildbritain/field_guides/pdf/animal_ tracks.pdf
BOOKS
Hands Can by Cheryl Willis Hudson and John-Francis Bourke - a picture book featuring colour photographs and rhyming text.
Taking Care of My Hands and Feet by Terri DeGezelle - part of a series about keeping healthy and personal hygiene.
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury - a beautifully illustrated picture book with rhyming text about how we are all different yet the same.
The Game of Finger Worms by Herve Tullet - a colourful and interactive book that asks children to draw little faces on their fingers and poke them through holes to complete the pictures.
The Foot Book by Dr Seuss - a humorous look at opposites through the medium of feet.
Harris Finds His Feet by Catherine Rayner - a little rabbit wonders why he has got such huge feet.
Alfie's Feet by Shirley Hughes - Hughes' famous little character has fun in his welly boots and then finds out they are on the wrong feet!
Naughty Toes by Ann Bonwill and Teresa Murfin - a comforting story about a love of dance and how we are all good at different things.
The Girl Who Loved Wellies by Zehra Hicks - Molly loves her boots so much she refuses to take them off, then one day she develops an itch between her toes!
Marianne Sargent is a writer specialising in early years education and a former foundation stage teacher and primary and early years lecturer
