Printmaking

In this lesson, we learned about printmaking. The 4 different types of printmaking were detailed for us in a powerpoint. The teachers gave examples of everyday printmaking, such as stamps and printing on t-shirts. The teachers then showed us the project we would be making. They took a piece of Styrofoam (like you'd find on a Styrofoam plate) and drew a design on it, with different symbols representing things from their lives. They then had us brainstorm ideas for symbols to put on our prints. After we had brainstormed for a bit, the teachers took their plate over to the painting stations and showed us how to use the rollers to apply paint to your plate, then to flatten your paint-covered plate on paper to make the print. We then went back to our desks to make our own plate. Once we created our plate, we had to make 2 prints with the same plate in different colors on a large piece of construction paper. Upon completion of our prints, we had to attach a notecard detailing our representations and what they meant.

I think a good extension activity for this project would be to have students make three or four separate plates that ran into each other (continuous). For example, for mine I would have made plates that continue the mountains and stream into the next plate, while the trees continue on the other side. This would give students more practice with carving into the plates, as well as let them practice filling up all of their space. You could even incorporate elements of the color wheel; have the first plate be blue, then have the students mix their own purple paint for the next plate, then use red for the next one, with orange following.