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!