Welcome to another Science Invitation Saturday where we explore science for kids! Last week we played with bubbles and even made our own bubble wand and bubble solution. This week are going to explore fingerprints!
Materials:
- ink pad
- paper
- magnifying glass (optional)
- fingerprint record sheet
Fingerprint Record Printable
Procedure:
Everyone’s fingerprints are different. Let’s see what your fingerprints look like!
- Press one of your fingers onto an ink pad.
- Gently and slowly roll your finger onto your fingerprint record sheet or a blank piece of paper.
- Make a print of each finger.
- Compare your prints. What is similar about your prints? What is different? (Optional: Use a magnifying glass to make the comparisons).
Lucy’s Comments: “I see lots of hills and swirls.” “How many lines are on our fingers, Mom?” “What do yours look like, Mom?”
Tips:
– Our ink was coming out very dark in the prints. What worked for us was to press our finger in the ink, then press it once on scrap paper to get of excess ink, and THEN make our print to keep on our record sheet.
– This is a messy activity. Have your sink ready for hand washing!
Question to Spark More Curiosity & Critical Thinking:
What patterns do you notice in your prints? Do your prints look similar to your family’s prints?
What are any benefits you can think of to everyone having different fingerprints?
Want to go even further?
Even more activities to inspire creativity and critical thinking for various ages:
- Fingerprint patterns are divided into different groups. With a parent, search online or in a book to discover what group your fingerprints fall into. Compare the results to that of other family members for friends.
- Make a fingerprint using the ink pad onto a deflated balloon. Wait for it to dry. Then blow up the balloon until you can see your fingerprint in more detail!
- Collect a fingerprint record of everyone in your family. Then, without you seeing, have one person leave a fingerprint on some paper. Try to figure out whose fingerprint it is by comparing it to your fingerprint record.
- Turn your fingerprints into art! We put our fingerprints on blank paper. Then we used colored pencils to add details.
Don’t forget to join the Buggy and Buddy community on Facebook where there’s even more ideas for creating and learning!
I’ve been thinking about doing a finger print activity to go with our human body unit. It looks like your kids enjoyed this activity.
I was recently at my friends house and she had huge fingerprint pictures hanging on her refrigerator. She enlarged the kids fingerprints and then they colored them with oil pastels. They looked really cool.
I am just in love with that idea, Julie!!! How fun would that be! Thank you for sharing!
Lovely activity! We looked at fingerprints last year – lots of fun. I love the idea of making them into art – so cute. Lucinda
Thank you so much, Lula!
This is such a cute idea!! I can’t wait to try it with some of my clients. I’m a speech therapist and this activity would be great to target expressive language (comparing, contrasting, expansions…). Thanks for sharing!
Kim
Thank you, Kimberly! I love that idea~ hope you find the activity useful!
Just today we were looking at the prints our fingers made in modeling clay. Thanks for sharing such great ways to learn about and have fun with finger prints. We’ll have to give some of these a try. š
Oh, how fun, Ann! That’s a great idea!
Oh, this looks like a lot of fun. I love the idea of fingerprinting on a balloon and then blowing it up to see the details. Thanks for linking up to the Hearts for Home bloghop. I’m featuring you over at The Hands-On Homeschooler.