Middle School

The Essential Question
How can students connect the uniqueness found in nature to their own identity?

Objectives
Students will discover and reflect on the uniqueness that fingerprints and snowflakes share. Students will create cut-paper snowflakes using fingerprinted paper.

Materials
white tempera or acrylic paint, large sponges or disposable towels, 9 x 12" (23 x 30 cm) blue construction paper, 9 x 12" or larger black construction paper (for mounting work), scissors, glue sticks, pencils, rulers

Procedures

1. Students learn facts about the uniqueness of fingerprints and snowflakes. (No two snowflakes and no two fingerprints are exactly alike.)Students make fingerprints on the blue construction paper by dipping their fingers in a paint-soaked sponge or disposable towel.
2. When the paint is dry, students fold their paper into a square and then into a triangle.
3. Students draw lines from the edges of the fold to create the shape of their snowflake.
4. Students cut out the snowflake, preserving some of the folds, and glue the snowflake onto the black construction paper.

Melody Weintraub is a retired art educator and art education supervisor for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.