Aboriginal Hand Prints

The aboriginal people of Australia used to make paintings by blowing pigment (natural paint) from their mouth through a straw. They would put their hands on cave walls and blow the pigment on top, making a hand stencil!

Materials:

• paper

• scissors

• tape

• watered-down tempera paint

• spray bottle

• crayons

Let's do an internet search for examples of Aboriginal Hand Print art.
(We suggest goodsearch.com - Plug in the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine in the Non-Profit Option!)

You can also look at these books: Desert Dreaming by Deidre Stokes or Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo by Alison Lester.

Look at the lines and dots. Some are squiggles, some are straight, some are curvy... what else?

Instructions:

1. Trace your hand and cut it out.

2. Tape the hand from the back to the piece of construction paper.

3. Use crayons or markers to decorate around the hand with the styles of lines from above.

4. Using a squirt bottle, spray the watered down tempera paint lightly around the hand.

5. Remove the hand piece from the construction paper.