Making Prints with Textured Balls

A while back Chris and I attended a friends' wedding in New Harmony, Indiana.  Its a cute little town with some great local history.  They also are one of the founding towns for early childhood education in the United States, but that's a post for another day.

We were walking around the town between the service and reception and popped into the local art gallery.  There was an artist that had created balls of various sizes out of clay and attached 3D patterns to the outside.  The artist had rolled them in sand to show the patterns that they made.  It was an interactive exhibit that allowed observers to make some prints with some of the smaller pieces.  (I will need to call about who the artist is.  I forgot to write down the name.)

I immediately thought that this would be wonderful to have for an early childhood classroom for the sand table, clay, or with paint/ink.

Imagine my delight when I came across these balls in the dollar section at Target today.  I picked up one of each.  As I often do, I tried the experiment with Miles before taking them to work.

These particular balls light up.  Miles was a bit more excited about them lighting up than about the patterns, but I think the kids would get a kick out of using them in various media.  This activity promotes strengthening of fine motor movements.

We also tried rolling them around in corn meal and then compared the 2 methods and the patterns that were made.  I think that this activity could be a lot of fun to do with a lesson that includes talking about animal prints.