This makes an adorable gift for Daddy, family members, and those special people in your life.  Get together with other family members and create a gift for grandparents.  This is the calendar that I created using ideas of my own as well as ideas from these wonderful sites:  Little Giraffes, Little Blots, and Ceres Preschool.  You can also help teach your children about giving.  Understand that this is a big project but when it is finished you will have no regrets.  Nor will the receiver of this great gift.  Plus, this is a great sensory and fine motor activity!

Items Needed:

Paper to print the handprints and footprints - don't use heavy paper as it weighs down the calendar
Tempera Paint - Red, Orange, Yellow, White, Brown, Green, Blue - I did not use washable and got along fine.  It doesn't not require much paint.
Paint Brushes - best to have one per color, small Foam Brushes covers a larger area in shorter amount of time
Wet Rags (this made clean up extremely easy)
Paper to Cover the table
Paint Shirt
Blank Calendar - This calendar from Amazon can be disassembled and slid into scrapbook albums at the end of the year!!
Scissors
Rubber Cement
Paint, Colored Pencils, or some other type of writing utensil to add the details to the prints (don't use markers)
Verses (either print or hand written) - links below

Suggestions:

• Due to the ages of our kiddos, I did not do the prints directly on the calendar but instead used paper.  Then I cut around each print and used rubber cement to glue them onto the calendar.
• Paint the child's hand/foot the color that you need - I used a paint brush.  Show them whether you want an open or closed hand depending on the picture.  When finished, use a wet rag to wipe off the paint.
• Instruct the child to let you position their hand and not to move their fingers on the paper.
• The smaller (8x8) calendars work best for 1-2 prints while more prints need the 12x12 calendars. 
• This activity would be best done over at least two sitting periods as there is a lot of time involved.
• Typically, I could print two prints and then paint needed to be reapplied.
• The younger the child the less colors I would suggest using on their hand. 
• Do not use marker or regular Elmer's glue as it bleeds through to the other side. 
• As we created the calendar we talked about the amount of things that the receiver of the calendar does for us.  We discussed how we in turn are giving to them by creating the calendar.
• If creating a calendar with several children, have the pen ready to mark initials on back of or beside each print in order to keep everything straight.

Paint Order:

It really helps to do all of the prints of the same color at once.  Here is a list and order that works well.

Red - Apple (palm), Heart, Tree Leaves
Orange - Fish, Tree Leaves, Butterfly (with middle finger and middle of palm brown)
Yellow - Sun, Tree Leaves
White - Snowflake (one finger), Snowmen
Brown - Footprint
ROYGB - Rainbow, Turkey (palm and thumb brown)

Verses

You can either print or hand write the verses.  I have created three different ready-to-print pdf documents.  You will have to gauge which size you actually need.

Calendar Verse Document - A list of each month along with the verse
Small - Ready to print.  Use for small calendar or with many prints per page
Medium - Ready to print.  Use for three or less handprints
Large - Ready to print.  Use with few handprints.

Thank you Rhonda for the wonderful verses and suggestions!

Calendar Cover - Handprint and Poem

There are many poems available on the web for handprint and footprint crafts.  DLTK has several to choose from.

  

January - Snowflakes

The child was instructed to leave their hand spread but since only the index finger is painted it left little lines.  We created a circle of lines and then went back over in an "x" formation.  Print on colored paper as white doesn't show well on white calendar paper. 

February - Hearts

Keeping the hand tight, I painted the entire hand.  The heart is created with two prints laid together at an angle.  The finger tips are at the bottom of the heart.  You can also make small hearts using two thumb prints arranged to make a heart. 

  

March - Flowers

There are several options to make the flowers.  We created more of the "tulip" look. 

April - Rainbow

Using five colors of the rainbow, make sure that the inside finger (of the rainbow) is colored blue.  This will take several repaints of the hand.

May - Butterflies

The butterflies are created with a spread hand.  Orange except for brown down the middle finger and middle of the palm.  Added are a face and antennas.

June - Footprint

This is our favorite one to do.  The kiddos laid down while I painted their foot.  Then I helped them stand up and then stepped their foot onto the paper.  I would suggest help with little ones as it is hard to hold them up and keep their foot from sliding. 

July - Fish

Paint the hand orange with the fingers together.  Add a face to the fishy!

August - Sun

Paint the entire hand with yellow paint.  Rotate keeping the palm in the center.  I added a face to our sun.

September - Apples

Paint just the palms.  I painted on a stem and leaf.

October - Fall Tree

It helps a lot if you do all items of the same color at the same time.  We finished the colors red, orange, and yellow with the tree.  I painted on a tree trunk.

November - Turkeys

The older kids created colorful turkeys while our youngest did just a brown turkey for simplicity. 

December - Snowmen

Paint the entire hand white with a spread print.  Add a hat, face, nose, and buttons.  Colored paper works best as the white won't show will on white calendar paper.  Or create a Christmas tree.