We’ve had lots of sunny weather this week, and it’s the perfect opportunity for a simple and fun STEAM Saturday activity that combines science and art! Your child will have fun building, designing, and learning about sunlight while making LEGO Sun Prints!
What is a sun print? Sunlight is made up of ultraviolet rays. These rays are powerful (which is why sunscreen is always recommended), and can break down the chemical bonds in certain materials. When you place your LEGO builds on construction paper and leave them out in the sun, the ultraviolet rays break down the coloring of the paper around your designs, leaving a really cool piece of art behind!
For this creative science experiment, you’ll need:
- LEGO pieces and minifigures
- Construction paper or solar paper
- Trays (optional)
- Other toys/items to use for your sun prints
First, choose your paper. Perhaps you can choose different colored pieces of construction paper. How do you think the sun’s rays will affect each color? Take your paper into a sunny area and lay it on a flat surface. Make sure it is weighed down to protect it from flying away if there’s a breeze!
Next, choose some LEGO minifigures or neat LEGO pieces and lay them out on a piece of paper. You can also choose to build some structures and lay them on your paper with the flat side facing down. Can you create a whole scene out of LEGOs and/or other toys?
Now, leave your artistic creations to sit in the sun. The sun prints could take longer to develop depending on what kind of paper you are using. With solar paper, it might take up to 20 minutes, but with construction paper, your prints might need two to three hours in the sun.
After your prints have been out in the sun for a while, it’s time to see the results. Remove your LEGOs/toys from the paper. What do you see? How has the color of the paper changed?
Check out the full activity and more of the science behind it from Little Bins for Little Hands HERE!
It might be fun to try this experiment with different types of paper and compare the results. Does the sun have the same effect on card stock? Posterboard? Computer paper?
As always, get as creative as you want, and above all, have lots of fun learning together!
We’ll see you right back here next Saturday for another STEAM Saturday activity! Scroll through the rest of our website to learn how Critchlow Adkins is Building Brighter Futures for the children and families we serve!
