Sunprints

 

Supplies:

Sunprint specially-treated photo paper,

Ordered from www.lawrencehallofscience.org

Acrylic sheet that comes with the Sunprint paper | leaves, flowers, items from nature

Large piece of cardboard | Large tub with water | Newspaper

 

 

 

 

Here's a fun activity to show kids about the power of sunlight. Sunlight is not only crucial for plants to live and grow, but it helps make a really neat garden art project, too!

 

You will need to pre-order photo-sensitive Sunprint paper, which has been specially treated with chemicals so that it will do the magic trick that the kids will see when they do this experiment.

 

First, let them gather pretty things from nature, enough to make a collage. Tell them what a collage is - a collection of objects that, grouped together, make a pretty scene. They might get several of the same thing, like these dandelions, or maybe one big thing, like a big leaf, or maybe all different kinds of leaves and grasses with different shapes. It works best to collect things that lay pretty flat, so advise students to avoid things that are round.

 

Now, working inside, one student at a time, place a piece of Sunprint paper on the cardboard, with the blue side up, and arrange the items from nature into a collage on the paper. When you are happy with how it looks, carefully smash the clear acrylic sheet on top of the collage so that the items won't shift or blow away.

 

Now go outside to a very sunny spot, with no shade at all, and set your Sunprint collage down on the ground. Watch your watch - expose your collage to the sun until the paper turns almost white. It should take anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes, depending on how strong the sunlight is. Don't go longer than 5 minutes, or you might over-expose your picture.

 

Now quickly go back inside, dump off the collage items and the cardboard and acrylic sheet, and place the Sunprint paper only into a tub of clear water. Leave it in there for about one minute.

 

Take it out and lay it flat on newspaper until it is dry. How do you like your Sunprint?