Montessori Preschool Fun! Gyotaku: fish printing

February brings the study of fish and all things fishy. One of the art projects that we do is painting a real fish and making prints from it. The Japanese traditional method is called Gyotaku. This printing is usually done with inks but we use just regular paint. The children love looking at the tilapia's gills, inside it's mouth, and seeing its scales and all the different fins it has. Yes, the fish is a bit stinky. And yes sometimes even the printing they take home is a bit stinky (some even had a scale or two stuck on it). And yes we could get a fake, rubber fish that would eliminate all that but really, it just wouldn't be the same.
They made one printing on aluminum foil. When everyone had completed those we left the fish out for anyone who wanted to make more. They were free to paint the fish and make a printing with yellow paper. www.MCHLG.com