Printmaking - Seasonal Landscape

   
Description: For our printmaking lesson, Ally and I chose to integrate printmaking into a lesson for second graders about the different seasons. For many people, this was the first time that they had completed a project using printmaking. Because it was the first time that many of our peers had used printmaking, we have to be very explicit about each of the steps in this project. 

Here are the main steps of this activity: 

Draw a Season Landscape - We will draw a landscape of the season you selected. Sketch a ’rough draft’ of your image on your white paper using your pencil. Remember to use all your paper, making sure that your project demonstrates balance.

Tape – Next, we will tape our sketches on top of the Styrofoam sheets using masking tape. Make sure that you line up the edges so that your drawing paper is directly over top of the Styrofoam plate.

Trace Landscape - After you have your drawing taped down, you will then trace over top of each of your lines, pushing firmly into the Styrofoam. You will need to press firmly with your pencil so that your image is copied onto the Styrofoam. But be sure that you are not pressing too hard and creating holes in your landscape.

Retrace Landscape – After you have completely traced over your image, you will need to remove the paper drawing from the Styrofoam sheet. After you have separated them, you will retrace the image so that the grooves of your landscape are more distinctly indented into the Styrofoam.

Extension: For another activity, you could have students complete another printmaking activity that teaches them about mandalas. Each student could create 1/4 of their design and use printmaking to create a mandala using several prints. This is a lesson that you could integrate within the mathematics standards.