Homemade Stencils

I was itching to do something new with the kids today, so I started looking through one of my curriculum books (this particular one is focused on fine motor skills) and saw this idea for homemade stencils.

I gathered up three plastic lids from the pantry, and drew a few simple shapes on the bottoms. Then I cut the shapes out, making shape stencils. Since Miss O can't really draw with stencils yet and I wanted to include her in the activity, I decided we would sponge paint with the stencils.

Using three colors of paint and a kitchen sponge cut into squares, I had the kids lay the stencils down on paper and hold them in place with their non-dominant hand. They dipped the sponges into the paint and patted them over the stencil until none of the paper showed. When we lifted the stencils up to see the designs, the kids were surprised! Miss O espescially liked this activity, and even asked for a second sheet of paper. The texture of the paint was quite nice once it dried as well. I'm sure I'll be making more of these stencils in the future!