Many Shaped Hands - Activity Instructions

Tune In

Tune in to the hands in the room and the similarities and differences there are.

Have students compare their hands to the children around them by holding their hands up to compare the size, length of fingers/fingernails, scars, freckles, and any adornments such as rings, nail polish, or bracelets. Ask the children

How are your hands similar to the person next to you?
How are your hands different?

Find Out

Our hands all look different, and we can do lots of different things and make lots of different shapes with our hands. We are going to play a quick partner game with our hands called 'Rock, Paper, Scissors’.

Have the students practice creating the following shapes with their hands by moving their fingers in different ways to represent ‘Rock’, ‘Paper’ and ‘Scissors’

Explain to the children the rules:

Make a fist with one hand and hold your other hand out like a plate. Your partner will do the same. Then you and your partner will say ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot’ at the same time. Each time you say ‘rock’, ‘paper’ and ‘scissors’ tap your fist to your open hand. Then, on shoot, you and your partner pick either rock, paper, or scissors to make with your hand. Paper wins by wrapping up a rock, rock wins by breaking scissors, and scissors win by cutting paper. See who wins, and then you can play again.

Play a few demonstration games with a child, explaining as you go before allowing the children to find a partner and have a few games.

After a few games, remind the children about Sam from ‘What Happened to Your Hand?’.

If Sam was in our group, would he be able to join in this game? (he could use his other hand!)
What about if both his hands were different? How could we make sure he could play with us? (what alternative hand gestures could represent rock, paper and scissors? Is there another way to play?)
What about if we had a friend with no hands at all? Or hands that they couldn’t move very well? (use their feet, use cards with rock paper and scissors)

Take Action

Explain to the children, “So we were able to move our hands into three different shapes for that game. We are now going to make pictures using outlines of our hands. Here is an outline of my hand and here is an outline of Sam’s hand. What could we turn each of these shapes into?”

Allow the children a chance to brainstorm different ideas that each hand outline can be turned into. Give each hand equal attention to emphasise the fact that they are simply two different-shaped hands, and neither is ‘better’ or more ‘special’ than the other; they are simply different.

Then invite the children to create a picture using the outline of their own hand.

“Now we are going to make our own unique pictures, using each of our unique hand prints. I wonder how many different shapes and pictures we’ll be able to make.”

The following steps and level of independence or assistance will differ greatly between children based on their age, development and fine motor skills. Allow children to have a go themselves and scaffold as necessary.