We recently spent some extra time exploring the color blue and this particular process of making blue print designs ended up being far more engaging to my students than I ever thought it would. I love it when every child in the classroom takes their time exploring a process…
Before the children began they found tubs filled with water, heavy blue construction paper shapes, scissors, and heavy white drawing paper all set out on the table…
To get some of my younger students started, I cut some of the blue construction paper into clouds and snowman shapes. I left the rest of the paper in squares for the children to cut out their own shapes any way they wished…
To make the blue prints, the children selected or cut out a paper shape then dipped the paper into the tub of water to make sure it was completely wet…
Once the paper was soaked with water, then the children placed it on their white paper canvas. The children could arrange the wet blue paper shapes anyway they wished on the paper…
Some of the children created a winter like scene with the blue paper shapes…
Others added their own drawings as well…
And others added their blue shapes in all kinds of random ways around their white paper…
The children stayed focused on getting the paper wet and designing their white canvas for quite some time. Some of the children were fascinated by the way the blue paper seem to change color once it was wet. It definitely turned a darker blue but the children thought the paper turned almost purple in color…
The paper had a glossy look too once it was wet which the children also found to be quite lovely…
Lots of wonderful descriptive words to use while the children worked including glossy, shiny, wet, dry, light, shade, dark, soak, drip, and the list goes on…
After each child was happy with his or her design and ready to set aside to dry, then we pulled out another sheet of heavy white art paper to place over the top of their designs and then set aside to dry in the drying racks…
There is no glue in the water or anything else that will make the blue designs stay on the paper. The children wonder what will happen when everything dries and soon they will find out. The blue paper will dry and fall from the page and the children can save their cutouts in an envelope if they wish…
And left behind on the white paper will be a print of their blue designs…
I took one of the children’s drying papers out of the drying rack to show you how the print is left behind and then put it carefully back together the way the child had designed it and slipped it back in the drying rack to let it dry the rest of the way…
The children will return next week to observe their finished work. They can use the print and paper cut outs like a puzzle or they can choose to hang it up on our wall or they can simply take it all home. This process was super simple but has given us many different things to concepts to explore along the way….
By the way, not all construction paper bleeds like this construction paper did so you will want to test your paper before giving it a try.
Available on Amazon