Collagraph

My first grade class viewed several works of art that focused on cityscapes. We also talked about printmaking and looked at several different ways to make prints. I had some rubber stamps and some foam stamps as well as a linoleum block. I gave them a large pile of scrap construction paper and some corrugated paper for texture. They cut and glued paper in the shapes of buildings. We used Elmer's glue because glue sticks are not permanent enough and tend to come off when ink is applied.

When the girls had completed their city-scape collages, we allowed them to dry. I did not add a varnish to each plate, but if you have time, adding a layer of waterbased varnish to the surface will make for a more rich print, as the ink will not soak into the paper. Next class I inked one collage to show them how they would be printed. They loved seeing how the image was flipped after it was printed. They also liked seeing what happened to the textured area.

Pinch Pots

First grade had a blast making little pinch pots with texture and color. I used Sargent brand Sculp It, self-hardening sculpting material. I love this brand and type because it is already portioned out and is very easy for little ones to use. I have a little water on each table, napkins and lots of tools for mark-making in the end. Here's a good video of how to make both pinch and coil pots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5O2mJELhRg

Imaginative Insects

Fourth graders were intrigued by insects this year. I gave them the challenge of "inventing" their own with this printmaking project. I checked out many books on insects and we talked about different shapes we saw. They needed to figure out how to make the insects seem believable so no stick legs here! The girls thought about joints in legs, antennae shapes, body segments and eyes. Would the insects fly? Would they be good climbers? Would they have stingers to protect themselves?

We used foam printing plates to make the prints. First they drew their insects in their sketchbooks, them transferred them to the foam plates by tracing over their drawings over the foam. They were so excited to make their own colorful paper using color diffusion paper, liquid water colors and pipettes. After their papers had dried, we used silver ink to print the foam plates. What interesting and beautiful results they achieved!



Day of the Dead

Living in Houston, Texas, we have a wonderfully diverse community. This year I decided to teach the girls about the Mexican holiday called Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. There are many Day of the Dead celebrations in Houston each year, and since our school is Catholic, the girls had been learning about "All Souls Day" and "All Souls Day" which is celebrated at the same time and is basically a Western-Catholic version of the same holiday.

Day of the Dead celebrates the life of those who have passed. It is a wonderfully happy and colorful holiday with parades and altars created to commemorate the lives of our loved ones. A common symbol used in the holiday is the skull or calavera. Second and fourth graders viewed many different versions of the colorful skulls, and we discussed common decorations and colors used by the Mexican people.

The second grade project was created by first looking at skulls and drawing a skull facing front. They decorated each skull with colored pencils, cut them out and glued them to black paper adding a border around each in either lime green or hot pink. Patterns were added to the frame and jewels and glitter embellished the final product.

 

The fourth graders looked at classroom skeletons so that they could create a three dimensional skull out of self hardening clay. When the clay dried, they painted them with tempera and embellished them with glitter. The products were amazing and many students had the opportunity to celebrate the life of a loved one lost.

 

 



 

 

Color Cubes

This is a great alternative color scheme project. You will need to print a cube pattern from the Internet; there are loads of options if you google "cube pattern". Make a list of color schemes on the board and have the girls define each. Have examples of artworks that follow each color scheme. My list included: warm, cool, triad, complimentary, monochromatic, and neutral.

 

 

We used colored pencils as the medium. I asked them to use variety in each design, and they could add pictures if they liked as long as they kept to the color scheme. Every side had a different color scheme.