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Handy Horses

Handy Horses

Horses are amazing creatures. Children will learn some interesting facts about these animals and create a handy hand-print horse.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    Did you know that horses can sleep standing up? Or that they can begin to run shortly after being born? Have a class discussion about horses. Talk about how some are wild and some are domesticated. Some are bred for racing and some for farm work. Ask students if they know the difference between a mare and a stallion or a filly and a colt. Students can discuss other interesting horse facts.

  • Step 2

    Have students draw and illustrate a scene and add a horse by using their handprint as the animal form. They can dip their palm in washable paint and press it onto paper. They can first practice on scrap paper using the thumb as a downward facing neck and head. The other fingers will be the legs. When the paint is dry they can add features to the horse, such as a mane, tail, hooves, and eyes, using crayons. Have them embellish the scene's background as well.

  • Step 3

    Ask students to present their handy horses and talk about some of the fun and interesting facts they learned.

Standards

SCI: Design pictorial or graphic representations/models that are useful in communicating ideas.

Adaptations

Ask students to form small groups and have each group create and act out a scene in which a horse is the main character.

Read a book such as "The True Story of Zippy Chippy: The Little Horse That Couldn't" by Artie Bennett and Dave Szalay or "Seabiscuit the Wonder Horse" by Meghan McCarthy. Both of these are about real horses who rose up to become famous in their own way.