A visit to the Art Gallery - 4 Year Old Class

Our Four-Year-Old Class recently learnt about printing, during an engaging and interactive visit to the Art Gallery. They also toured and viewed the gallery's Art Showing called 'Transference'. The field trip was led by Melanie, the Gallery's School Program Coordinator, who did a wonderful job engaging the children throughout the visit.

The children created monotype prints using a printing press. Melanie led the children in a discussion about prints and how they are all around us... in books/comics, on signs, labels, and endless more items. As Melanie pointed out, you could even see a print on the T-shirt that Matius was wearing! He had a print of a dinosaur on his T-shirt. That had all the children looking down at the clothes they were wearing, and calling out the prints they could see.

The various ways prints can be made were discussed (hand-prints, stamps, potatoes, etc.) and the children had their own ideas about what could make a print, “a shoe”, “a foot”, a dog”....

With the aid of a projector, Melanie explained about the tools needed for their printing activity that day. The ink, the brayer, a printing plate and the printing press.

Once the ink was spread on each child's plate, they then drew a picture of their choice with a Q-tip. This process was expanded upon, with the addition of various small and flat items (feathers, sequins, toothpicks...).

When the children were done, they took turns carrying their creations over to Melanie and the printing press. There, the artwork was put on the press, with a sheet of paper laid over-top the artwork. The next step was to roll, roll, roll the press.

The children collected their artwork and took them back to the tables. There the paper was peeled back, revealing their very own print. This was a very intriguing and enjoyable process. Once on the shelf to dry, the children washed the ink from their hands.