1st Grade - Foamie Printmaking

First graders were introduced to printmaking this past fall.  They each got a half sheet of foamie paper and were instructed to cut it into various shapes.  They glued the shapes onto a piece of oak tag to create any kind of image.  They had to make sure they didn't overlap any shapes, just glued them side by side.  The next art day, after the glue was dry, they each picked one color of tempera paint to paint onto their printing plate.  They printed the image onto white paper.  Then, they painted the plate again with white paint, mixing it with the color that was already there, and printed it a 2nd time onto black paper. 

2nd and 3rd Grade - Printmaking

This year, my second grade students used small styrofoam plates to carve out an animal and print with one color of ink.  They printed them in the center of a larger black paper.  When dry, they added a border with oil pastel around their print.  They also had the option of adding more color on the printed area.

 

Third graders learned about non-objective art before starting their printmaking unit.  Then they used a variety of plastic printing plates (cut from plexi-glass and thick overhead sheets) to practice additive and subtractive monoprints.  For additive, they painted ink onto their printing plate with a paintbrush.  For subtractive, they rolled one color of ink onto their plate with a brayer, and scraped away their non-objective design using a q-tip.  They were asked to explore both types of printing, and make at least three prints total.    They also added oil pastel to the dried prints.

 

 

1st Grade - Fall Leaf Prints

First graders enjoyed using the leaves they collected from outside the art room and painting them with warm colors (plus white) to print them.  They used gold to paint the veins of the leaves.  Their backgrounds were completed by dabbing on cool colors with a cotton swab.