Gorilla & Me Handprints

When we had our Jungle theme a couple weeks ago, I went to the library and checked out the book Actual Size, by Steve Jenkins. In it there is a picture of a life-sized adult gorilla hand. I thought it would be fun for the kids to see how much bigger it is compared to their hands. So I traced it to make a template and then I traced the template onto black construction paper. I used white paint to put a handprint of the child right on top of the gorilla handprint. And just for fun, after cutting it out, I glued it onto a colored piece of paper.

Note: It would have been easier to glue the gorilla handprint to the paper first, then get a handprint of the child. The paint from the kids' handprints made the black paper crinkle which made it hard to glue down smoothly.
My plan was to have the kids cut out the handprint themselves. I had my oldest try it first. And although she did great, she struggled with it a bit.

Usually when the kids cut something out I tell them it doesn't have to be perfect and they don't have to worry about staying on the lines. But for this project, if the kids didn't stay on the lines, the end result wouldn't be the same. If it looked nothing like a handprint, or was smaller than it was supposed to be, or if it was missing fingers, it would not have the same effect. So I cut the rest of them out.

And then I asked the kids what they would do if they met a gorilla. I wrote down their responses and posted them under their handprints on our door.

And I couldn't resist doing this project with my 16-month-old. Her tiny little handprint is so cute!

Fun Fact: Gorillas have fingerprints just like us!