Printmaking

Today's project was all about printmaking.  Each student got the chance to create two of their own prints for their printmaking.  To make the template, we used a rectangle piece of styrofoam (like a paper plate).  We drew in the styrofoam with a pencil and made two templates.  One was a pattern using shapes and the other was a holiday scene.  

Once we had our templates we took them over to the painting station and used a roller to roll on a specific type of paint.  We rolled the paint onto our template in a thin layer.  Once the thin layer was applied, we took the template and pressed it onto a sheet of construction paper.  We did this five times and kept three of our papers to be put on display.  Here are two of my projects.  One is the shape scene, and the other is the holiday scene.

This would be a good project for middle schoolers or higher elementary students.  The students could make a print when Christmas comes around.  The students could make two or three designs for Christmas and they could be displayed before Christmas break.  Middle schoolers could use a carving type of material (kind of like a big eraser) and carve their design into the eraser like material.  This would be the same concept, but since the students are older, they would have to be a bit more careful with the carving tool and carving their project.