Leaf Prints on Watercolor

Central Idea: Plants are essential to animal and human life

Visual Arts Line of Inquiry: how plants are used to create art

This was an integrated Sharing The Planet unit. We started with leaf rubbings/watercolor wash.  I always encourage the kids to do rubbings in white or yellow so the colors pop when they're painted.

The next class was making the prints of the leaves with black.  I would suggest having lots of extra leaves, as once they're used a few times they get floppy and are hard to work with.  The texture of the leaves really becomes apparent in the print.  The artists were very happy with their work (and their black fingers!).