Printmaking Intro for 1st Grade

Printmaking

We are studying printmaking with foam plates and incised lines. To introduce this concept we made a 'mini-plate' with an image of a fish. They stamped their fish in their idea books first to get the hang of the process, then created a pen drawing of a habitat. We used peeled crayons so that we could color lightly and quickly, then printed our mini-fish into our habitat using markers. They turned out great for a 15-20 minute project!

Here's an Idea Book with one of our graphic organizers. I usually have them make word webs because for me this is the easiest way to organize information quickly. Pretty great for first graders.

Printmaking Day Two

This whole project was inspired by a deepspacesparkle lesson for 3rd graders. Instead of using brayers and messy ink, I have borrowed the idea of just using paint. SO much easier, especially with a room full of 1st graders.

First, we used 'cool color watercolors' to paint a watery habitat for our fish. They could be as creative as they wanted. Usually, I'm a stickler for not leaving any white paper showing, but I'm starting to loosen up on that. Anyway, after they painted I demonstrated how to incise their fish into their 'large foam plate'. (Teacher prep: cut up styrofoam plates if you are on a budget! Super cheap!)

So while our paintings were drying, they lightly drew their fish on the plate in pen. We started out light so we could make changes to our fish before incising the lines permanently. Once they were happy with their drawing, we traced over our lines with lots of pressure, but not too much! Don't want to poke through to the other side.

Finally, we used 'warm color tempera paint' to apply color to the fish, then we printed the fish at least 3 times into the environment. They are turning out great! Some are better than others, but I'm happy they are understanding the process of printmaking.