Teeshirt Printing

Grades: K-12. Young students need more assistance. For K-2 consider teaming up with a middle school or high school class to provide "printing buddies".

Group Size: depends on materials available. Generally this is a station that students cycle through.

Maine Learning Results:

Guiding Principle:

A RESPONSIBLE AND INVOLVED CITIZEN

A. recognizes the power and personal participation to affect the community and demonstrates participation skills

B. understands the importance of accepting responsibility for personal decisions and actions.

Visual and Performing Arts, A. Creative Expression

Grades PreK-2:

Demonstrate ways in which the arts can be used in interdisciplinary activities.

Grades 3-4:

Create original works using different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas.

Secondary Grades:

Create a visual piece to communicate an idea.

Duration

Varies depending initial discussion to develop the message. The tee-shirt printing depends on number of students and number of printing stations. One tee-shirt printing takes about 3-5 minutes.

Introduction: This activity is a great way to deliver a message at an educational carnival or Family Lake Day. It can be set up as a station in a classroom or at a booth at an event. Participants paint prepared stencils and objects to create their own design on a tee-shirt. This creative, hands on activity engages people of all ages.

Materials

Tee-shirts, white or light colors are best
Fast drying acrylic fabric paints, some brands recommend the addition of a fabric medium to the paint to improve durability.
Containers to dispense small quantities of paint during the printing process.
Paint brushes, stencil brushes
Stencils to create the phrase
Natural objects (leaves, evergreen branches, fish, sea stars, be creative, even rock crabs have been printed)
Animal stencils, paintable stamps, try making potato stamps
Old newspapers
Coat hangers or clothes pins for hanging up shirts to dry
Sponges
Water for clean up
Smocks or old tee-shirts
Plastic to cover the painting table and a drop cloth for the floor

Procedure

Craft a phrase and collect printable objects that will help deliver the message. The message development process should involve as many of the stake holders of the event or outreach team as possible. Involve the students in contacting the lake association or other environmental groups in the community to determine the best issue to focus on. For example, "Plant a Buffer" was the phrase chosen by one school district and lake association to deliver the message: plants trees, shrubs and ground cover along the shoreline to help control erosion and filter stormwater runoff to protect the water quality of the lake. It is a good way to focus on the theme of the event and bond a group, class or club.
Create a stencil. Use at least 1 inch high letters. One way is to cut up and tape together a commercially available, plastic stencil kit.
Collect leaves, branches, or other significant objects that have a reasonably flat surface. If your message is environmental, have students bring in objects they find in nature. Experiment how different objects can be used for printing.
Cover a table with plastic, and place a drop cloth on the floor. Lay out old newspaper on the table. Dispense paint into small plastic containers with one brush for each color.
Demonstrate the procedure first to the class. For the younger grades, an adult or older student could help supervise the printing. Since not every one can be printing at the same time, it would be best to have other activities or seat work concurrently.
Place newspaper inside the shirt to prevent paint bleeding through to the back side of the tee-shirt.
Have one area on the table to paint the objects. Have another area with clean newspaper to lay out the tee-shirt. Paint one side of the object with an even coat of paint. Too much paint obscures the fine details of the object, such as the ridges on a leaf or the scales of a fish. Have students experiment on paper first. Make sure they plan the layout of the stencil and objects before printing. Always print the largest objects first. Try to work from the top down or side to side to avoid smudging the previously printed objects.
Small objects can be painted and laid on the shirt and pressed or rubbed well. For example, lay the painted side of the leaf on the tee-shirt and rub the back of the leaf.
Larger objects (large fish) should be painted, moved carefully to a clean sheet of newspaper and the tee-shirt laid on top of the painted fish. In this case rub the tee-shirt all over the painted surface of the fish. With fish, be sure to hold out and paint the fins to get a dramatic print. Carefully peel the tee-shirt off the painted fish.
Rinse or wipe off the stencil and the larger objects. With leaves it may not be worth the effort to rinse off the paint. Try reusing the leaves. A maple leaf painted yellow could be repainted with red. Experiment with two colors on top of each other. For instance paint a thin coat of yellow on a maple leaf, let dry briefly, then a thin coat of red, lay on tee-shirt, and rub well.
Hang up the tee-shirt to dry for at least a half hour, depending on type of paint, thickness of application, and temperature/humidity. After at least 24 hours heat set the paint with a moderate temperature iron to extend the life of the paint. Painted tee-shirts can be washed and dried with the rest of the laundry.

For use at a public event

Train middle or high school age students to work the table. In addition to having the students work one on one with the participants, make sure the students talk about the importance of the message and what individuals can do to further support the message.

Other classroom uses

Teachers could use this process as a means to reinforce classroom content such as leaf identification, times tables, vocabulary words, accomplishments, etc.

Any questions or comments please call the DEP at (207) 287-7763 or email Denise Blanchette.