Good enough to print!
Wax paper monoprint with Sarina Smith from the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center. Sarina is an Art Studio major at Washburn University and loves doing art projects with kids at the museum! Create a masterpiece that can only be created once! Wax paper monoprinting is an opportunity to make unique art with materials from your home. This activity is powered by our friends at Evergy.
What you need:
- Wax paper.
- Paper.
- Paints.
- Paint brush.
- Comb, back of paintbrushes, or cotton swab to add textures (optional).
Directions:
- Cut a sheet of wax paper.
- Paint on your wax paper however you’d like.
- Use your finger, a comb, the back of a paintbrush, or a cotton swab to add textures and/or designs to your paint.
- Set a piece of paper on top of your wax paper and press down.
- Peel off the piece of paper and you’ll see the print you just made!
What kids learn:
- Fine motor skills. Kids practice using the small muscles in their hands later used for writing.
- Symbolic thinking, or the ability to think about one thing representing something else. When small children begin to connect a tree on paper to the tree on their street, they start building the connections in the brain that allow for reading and learning later.
Vocabulary:
- Printmaking. The activity or occupation of making pictures or designs by printing them from specially prepared plates or blocks.
- Texture. The feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or a substance.
- Monoprint. A print that is usually limited to one copy. Mono means one. A monoprint is typically drawn or painted onto a plate, block, or surface and then transferred onto paper.