We hosted a fun Solar Science Workshop in the park in July.  The was one of my favorite workshops we did this year. It was jam packed with so much learning fun.  Be sure to read about other workshops we have enjoyed this year and all the fun learning adventures we have been doing at Take Action Tuesday.

Our Solar Workshop contained learning activities about the Sun and Solar Power. 
This Solar Workshop story will be posted in two parts:

                Solar Science Workshop Part One: Sunprint Fabric Squares

                Solar Science Workshop Part Two:  Solar Ovens and Solar Power.



SUNPRINT FABRIC SQUARES

Have you heard of Sunprint Fabric? 



It is a special fabric that captures the energy of the sun to make a “reverse” photograph.   It comes in craft kits and is fun for both kids and adults.  This learning project targets NAEYC Curriculum Area for Cognitive Development: Creative Expression and Appreciation for the Arts.

To make this craft, it is a simple process of gathering items you would like to photograph, placing them on the Sunprint Fabric, placing all of this in the sun, waiting 15 minutes, rinsing the fabric in cold water, and letting it dry.



The fabric starts out a green color, but after it is exposed to the sun, it turns blue.  Once you have rinsed it, the area that was covered by the object you placed on it turns white.  It is like a white shadow of the object.  Any of the material exposed to the sun becomes blue, but material not exposed becomes white, thereby making a shadow type of photograph of the object that was placed on it.



You can place just about any object you want onto the fabric as long as it lays flat and makes contact with the material to block the sunlight from getting to the material.



I brought a huge box of random toys for the kids to choose items from, and some of the kids gathered items they found in the park too including plants (flowers and leaves from weeds in the grass), wooden sticks, and rocks.



Each person made their own personal art with items they put together.



After 15 minutes in the sun, the kids rinsed their fabric in cold water.

  

Then laid them out to dry.  As the fabric dries, their art appears.  It was amazing to see these green squares of fabric transform into blue and white works of art.



On a recent trip to Roper Mountain Science Center in Greenville, SC my family enjoyed looking at several beautiful quilts made using the sun printing process. 



These quilts were beautiful and the details of the photographs on the fabric were amazing.  You could see lots of details in each one. 



I encouraged the kids at our Solar Science Workshop to take their finished Sunprint Fabric Squares home and frame them for their wall, or turn it into a pillow or something they can enjoy for years to come just like these quilts we saw at the museum.  Other ideas are to sew several together to make a collage, a beautiful quilt, a curtain, or sew one square onto a shirt, etc.  These would make wonderful personalized Christmas gifts to give to grandparents from their grandchildren.  So many great things these can be used to decorate with and learn about science and art too.

Sunprint products come in both fabric and paper kits and are available at Discount School Supply online store.  You can buy the kits in different sizes.  The 25 pack of Sunprint Fabric Squares retails for $20.99   The 12 pack of Sunprint Paper Kit retails for $7.44 and they have a large 12 pack of Sunprint Paper in a kit that retails for $12.99.  They offer free shipping on orders over $79. 

We had such a fun time creating these special works of
art and learning about the power of the sun.  The Sunprint Fabric Squares were a perfect art / science craft to do with the kids for this workshop.  I want to thank Discount School Supply for asking us to review this craft project.


                                                  


Disclaimer: I received the product mentioned above in exchange for writing an honest review.  All opinions expressed are my own honest opinion.