Nursery World - Enabling Environments: Printing

Printing is an immediately engaging activity for young children because it is both visual and tactile. Nicole Weinstein offers some tips

Printing and pattern-making is a wonderful visual arts medium that children love to engage in because of its emphasis on colour, shape and lines. Young children can use parts of their body to make basic print; for example, by running through wet or muddy puddles, by pressing fingers and hands into damp sand, or by making marks on table tops with water, food or paint. These experiences can be extended to include simple printing techniques such as mono-prints, repeating patterns and making printing plates.

According to early years and creative arts consultant Anni McTavish, ‘Printing can be a very exciting activity because we never know quite what’s going to happen, or the effect of certain media and materials. There is so much potential because of the wide variety of different objects and tools that can be used to create print effects, from using natural objects like fir cones, stones and shells with thick paint to giant sponges filled with water dropped onto pathways.’

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