Materials
various colors of construction paper
scissors
markers
cardstock paper
yarn in yellow, brown, red, and black
craft glue
craft materials (wiggle eyes, tissue paper squares, aluminum foil,
patterned papers)
self-adhesive Velcro
Instructions
* January 21st is National Hugging Day.
1. A week or so before January 21st, tell the children about National
Hugging Day. Explain that it is a day to celebrate how fun it can be to
give and receive a hug.
2. Have each child choose a piece of skin-tone colored paper that they
think matches their own skin. Help them trace both hands on the paper
and cut them out. Put them aside for later use.
3. Ask the children to draw themselves on a large piece of cardstock
paper. Encourage them to glue on yarn "hair" and other craft materials
for eyes, clothes, and so on. When done, help each child cut around her
head and body of the drawing but cut off the arms and legs. (You will
attach these in the next step.)
4. Cut four strips of skin-tone paper to match the tones the children chose
for their hands. Attach one strip to each side of the child's drawing for
arms and two to the bottom of the drawing for legs.
5. Provide patterned paper cut into shoe shapes for the children to attach
to the bottoms of the legs.
6. Help the children attach their paper hands to the ends of the arms on
their drawings. Let everything dry.
7. Help the children cut out a red or pink heart. Use edging scissors for a
nice effect. Help them print "I love you" on their hearts.
8. Let the children glue their hearts to the middle of their drawings (near
where a real heart is located).
9. Help the children attach a small Velcro dot to the hands, with the loop
side on one hand and fuzzy side on the other.
10. Fold the hands around the heart and attach them together using the
Velcro.
11. On National Hugging Day, the children can give their hugging doll to
someone they love.
More to do Create a poem about hugging or use the song below to print on the heart
or on tags that are attached to the dolls.
Hugging (Tune: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star")
Hugging is something I like to do,
I'll hug all the animals in the zoo.
I'll hug my dog and I'll hug my cat
I'll hug a frog, what do you think about that!?
Hugging is something I like to do,
Now here's a big hug just for you!
