How to Make Sun Prints

The sun is a wonderful thing, offering heat and energy! Your child can learn more about the sun while creating these exciting sun prints with basic materials she can find around the house!

What You Need:

• A sunny afternoon
• Black construction paper
• Interesting-shaped objects
• Paper and pencil

What You Do:

1. Invite your child to search around his room, and the house, for objects that have interesting shapes. He can look for items that are organic or geometric in shape, encouraging his understanding of mathematical concepts!
2. Once he’s got a collection of fun things, invite your child to experiment with placement of the objects on his paper. He can think about how the objects work together, creating a finished arrangement, encouraging his creative and design skills!
3. Now it’s time to head outdoors! The sun is an important part of this experiment. Ask your child what he thinks might happen if the black paper is left outdoors with his objects placed on top of it. Offer him a sheet of paper and a pencil to write out his hypothesis.
4. After a couple of hours, invite your child to head outdoors and take a look at his black paper. Are the results what he expected? Not only does the sun provide heat, it also has the ability to change the colors of fabric and paper when exposed for long amounts of time!
5. Invite your child to remove the objects from the paper and find a place to display the sun print in his room!

Did You Know?

The sun’s diameter is about 870,000 miles wide. That’s 109 times wider than the Earth! The temperature at the core of the sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit – that’s super hot!