Printmaking with First Grade

These beautiful collographs were created by my first graders. I love how these prints turned out! Being an avid printmaker myself, I really enjoy doing these types of projects with my students. We even used entirely recycled materials for the printing plates! This was a fantastic introduction to geometric and organic shapes as well as printmaking.

Materials Needed:

class set of corrugated cardboard cut into 5" X 6" plates

cereal boxes and thin cardboard, cut down into 8 X 11" panels

poster with geometric and organic shapes

scissors

white glue

permanent markers

water based printing ink (we used Dick Blick's student printing ink)

rubber brayers

pieces of sulphite paper cut 7" X 8"

manually operated printing press

Procedure:

1. Students will discover the difference between geometric and organic shapes. Geometric shapes have a special name and attributes, organic shapes don't have special names and are often called "blobs" or "squiggles."

2. Students will draw 4-5 geometric and organic shapes with marker on thin cardboard and then cut out. These will be glued on the thicker corrugated cardboard.

3. When dry, have the students roll ink with a brayer on their plate. I told them they could use all the colors or just one. I put out primary colors to reinforce our color mixing lessons from earlier in the year.

4. Place the corrugated cardboard plate face down on the sulphite paper and run it through the press for the students. Guaranteed to get lots of "ooh's" and "aah's"!

 

I love how the plates themselves look after printing!