February 24, 2016

Collograph Sun Prints: 3rd Grade


I'm not a Print Making kind of guy!  I never took a print making class in college.  I hate messes. 
That being said...there are things we don't love to teach, but we teach them...because the kids need us to expose them to a wide array of art making....because it is in the curriculum...because we need to challenge ourselves to be better than we are & face our fears!!  

When I started teaching almost 20 yrs ago...I didn't even know what a collograph print was?!?!  Thank goodness for connections!!!  The art gang helped me through it...and taught me the ways of print making.  

Since we have been doing a space"ish" theme as of late...I decided to do a mini-unit on Stars/Suns.  We look at a variety of artistically done suns from around the world....and I encouraged my students to be unique in the designing of their suns.  I allowed my students to use yarn & a thick card stock paper(donated ..not sure what exactly it is).  They created them last week and printed them this week.  I did not seal them or anything...as was suggested by one of my friends. (she recommended that because the paper absorbs some of the ink) I think they were ok without it.  I set up an area in my room with 5 printing stations.  I got the class started on another sun project..and then called five students at a time to print.  This works best for me....you do what you need to do to make it work for you!  It was more controlled this way..and I could keep an eye on the students printing & the rest of the class.  I'm really happy with the results!  THE KIDS LOVED IT!!




2 comments:

  1. Can you post an image of the "block" or "plate" the students created? How did you affix the yarn to the card stock?

    They look great! I've only ever done this project using flat styrofoam and ball point pens.

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  2. Just gorgeous! And I love printing - just saying - but I know a lot of art teachers don't love it!

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