This is a project that you will find in my book “Let Them Play”, which will be available on Amazon on Sept. 24th. I am providing the printables on my websites as freebies! The book has over 100 play activities including these shared today. These activities are fun, playful, and help children developmentally at the same time!

Children love to do fingerprint artwork. Using stamp pads that are washable makes it even easier. No big mess and the results are adorable! I did several fingerprint projects with my kids over the summer.

The first project we did was fingerprint artwork, using the printables below. You can download these designs and print them to use. The first is one is two dandelions. You have your child use a fingerprint for the poof on the end of each stem. Then they can do some more fingerprints, which would be poofs flying away in the breeze. The second printable is a mason jar. You have your child fill it with fingerprints using yellow and grey prints to make lightening bugs (you can see the example further below that Brielle made this summer). The third printable is a trike with balloons. Each fingerprint is a balloon attached to the trike on a long string. You can see examples of each of these designs completed by my kids below.

Doing fingerprint artwork helps children develop their fine motor skills. They are also working on focus and concentration skills. It takes some effort for little ones to get their fingerprint in the right spot to make their artwork turn out. Give it a try for yourself and you will see that fingerprint artwork is a more work than meets the eye.

The washable fingerprint pads that we use can be found on Amazon. This set is made by Bess and is currently priced under $10 on Amazon for the set of 20 colors! It is a good deal! You can see the photo of our set below, they are double stacked, so 20 colors total. I love that they are washable. I gave my kids each a wet wipe and they were able to clean their own fingers as needed. Here is the Amazon link to the inkpads: https://amzn.to/31aCapM

They are also available at Walmart, so whether you prefer Amazon or Walmart, you can find these washable fingerprint ink pads for a good price.

We also used the fingerprint ink pads to create animals. Below you can see the sample sheet I created. I provided this for my kids and they were able to create their own designs simply by viewing my sample sheet.

Using the inkpads and pads of their fingers makes this a sensory learning experience. Combined with the fine motor skill development and the fun that they have creating these projects it is a win-win-win activity!