Learning and Development
What will your child learn/how can she develop while exploring this art activity?
- Fine motor skills – finger/hand strength, eye-hand coordination, grip
- Color identification and recognition
- Shape identification and recognition
- Explore the artistic process/creativity
- Problem-solve
- Understand the part to whole relationship
- Explore color-mixing science
Kids Paint Print Art
Supplies:
- tempera paint – simplify the materials and go with the primary colors (red, yellow and blue) and white
- thick paintbrush
- styrofoam sheets or a dinner-sized plate
- craft sticks
- card stock paper – the thicker paper holds the paint better than construction paper
- scissors
- Optional: Glue, glitter, colorful chalk, craft felt, modeling clay
How-To Instructions
Cut the Styrofoam into shapes that are at least as big as your child’s hand. Your creative kid can pick any shape she wants, just make sure she names the shapes as she cuts them out.
Choose a design to print. Your child can put together shapes (we put together a square and a triangle to make a house) to make a picture. Pick a favorite animal, make a portrait of a person or go with a holiday theme. Avoid letters. They’ll print backwards. If your child can write letters as mirror
images or chooses only letters that look the same backwards and forwards, such as “A”, go for it.
Draw the design. Your child will use the edge of the craft stick to press into the Styrofoam. Press hard enough to see the lines, but not so hard that the craft stick pokes through. This is an excellent exercise in self-control and motor control.
Pour the paint into pools. Use a palette or a piece of wax paper to hold the paint. Mix the colors. Let your child experiment with mixing, blending her own colors.
Paint the printing plate -- over the drawing. Your child can use one color or choose a few. If you happen to have a brayer on hand, use that to roll the paint on instead of the brush.
Turn the plate over so that the paint side is facing down and press it onto the paper. Press down on the back of the Styrofoam.
Peel the print plate off of the paper to reveal an image.
Wash the plate off with a wet paper towel. Dry it completely. Reuse it with another color of paint. Your child can keep printing, making multiple images from the same plate.
Artsy Extensions
After your child has made several prints, line them up. Ask your child what looks the same and what looks different. Your child can make the prints look even more different by adding on to them. Use glue and glitter to outline the images, cut craft felt and glue it on to the print to make a textured collage, “finger paint” parts of the picture by spreading soft modeling clay over it or color in the larger areas with chalk.
Does your child want to display her awesome artwork? Glue all of the prints onto one piece of posterboard and create a gigantic Mother’s Day card or a massive DIY gift to give on any other special day.
Erica Loop is a mom, parenting writer and educator with an MS in child development. When she's not teaching, she's busy writing kids' activities for her blog Mini Monets and Mommies. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, and Instagram.
