Thursday, February 17, 2011

Prints in Progress

This week 2nd graders made their styrofoam printing plates of "Blue Dog" and printed 4 times on their prepared paper.
I made a couple of small adjustments in my original plans (last post). Before tracing over their drawings to transfer to the styrofoam, I had the kids tape their line drawing to the plate on top. I had pre-torn small masking tape pieces and placed them on the "table person" at each table. That saved time of kids trying to tear the tape, and it helped the kids keep their drawing from moving around when they traced. I also asked them to trace the lines on their styrofoam again (directly on the styrofoam) to make the lines deeper.

We used brayers to apply the colored printing "ink" but stiff brushes to apply the black paint. It was interesting. I used regular, washable block printing paint on one day and black acrylic paint the next day. Actually, I found the results better with the acrylic because it was lighter and easier for the kids to spread thinly with the brushes.
Next week, students will use markers to add some color to their prints and cut paper to add a border. Check back for the results.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Christie,
    I had my 2nd graders begin styrofoam prints this week too. We have not started the printing part yet but I think I will try the acrylic vs. ink too...see how it goes. Can you tell me a bit about your Table person? Do you have one for each table? What do you use it for mostly?
    Thanks,
    Dale

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  2. The table people are just used to identify the tables by name. They have a laminated identifying card on them. First, I had geometric shapes on the cards but this year I added the photo of an artist. So, the one in the picture posted is at the Georgia O'Keeffe table. These were more important when I taught in a regular classroom where the same kids were going to different tables all the time and the table names were part of our regular, daily vocabulary. This year, as an art room, they are more to familiarize students with different artists. Since the cards slip on and off over the little guy's head, I can change the pictures easily.
    Good luck with your printing project!!

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  3. Happy belated Birthday!!! Hope you had a great day sorry I missed it:)

    Off to browse your blog. Love it thanks for keeping us up to date on what's going on in the art room.

    Erica

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