Will your party hat be funny or fantastic?
3
Surface decoration techniques
In the unit the children are introduced to two surface decoration techniques - potato printing and appliqué. You can extend this work in the following ways.
1 Developing patterns that require more than one shape and more than one colour using potato printing
This will involve some experimentation to decide on arrangements of the different shapes including overlap and which colours to use. Here overlapping can give new colours and unexpected results. You will need to identify children with design ideas for which two colour, two shape patterns might be appropriate and allow them the time to experiment.
2 Developing patterns on the computer
There are several simple software packages that enable children to develop repeat patterns using both geometric and natural shapes and a wide range of colours. It is a simple matter to experiment and develop several different attractive patterns. These patterns can be printed out and used in quick mocks to decide which is the best for a particular design of hat.