Printing - circles.

This is my print - just experimenting with the shapes & textures.

Sometimes I like to do large art activities that a group of children can work on together, without a particular end product in sight. It is always a good activity early in the school year & sometimes draws those reluctant painters in too.

I signed up for an 8 week art course down in Belfast at the Play Resource Centre & each week we get to try different art styles or approaches using mostly the materials from the scrap store, paint & glue. It has been great as I can get new ideas for my class but also can visit the scrap store before the class starts & pick up some new materials for class. Last week I had spied these round foam circles & then in the class we also used some foam dabbers, that were on sale in the art shop. 

So I decided to let the class have a free reign with these foam shapes & different colours of paint on white card. Some were very precise just printing circles, whilst others used them more like a paint brush to sweep paint across the page. 

I was particularly pleased when one child, who hasn't painted yet or even really got messy, decided to join in & he even wore an apron - a major step for him. He loved squeezing all the paint from the sponges onto the page before getting his hands onto the page & moving the paint around like finger paint. The white card was shiny so the paint slipped around on the surface.

I loved watching one boy print with one colour & a big circle & then add a different colour with the smaller circle into the middle of the first print. Some spent ages at this activity while others did a few marks & then wanted to move on elsewhere. 

At the end of the hour or so, they had created some lovely art work to hang up in the story room. When I went back the next week there were smaller foam circles in the scrap store in the same material that I plan to gather up next week for some more printing fun.