Radial Symmetry 5th grade relief printmaking

Radial Symmetry Relief Printmaking in 5th grade 

On day one of the lesson, students painted a 12" x 12" piece of multi-media paper with liquid watercolors. I use Blick liquid watercolors and water them down a bit. They were encouraged to make a radial painting. 

On the second day, students carved their image on a foam sheet. I cut squares of foam sheets into 6" squares for each student. I purchased mine after Christmas for 90% off at Michaels! Students divided their sheet into curved sections with one corner being a small half circle to create their radial design. Students could use an ink pen, wood stylus, or dull colored pencil to carve their designs. 

I love gelli plates for printmaking. They create a nice flat surface for the children. I purchased mine with a grant. Don't forget to have them draw an arrow on the corner they want to be in the middle! 

Once they carved their design, the printmaking part went pretty quickly. My students had so much fun with this! 

 

4th Grade Roy Lichtenstein self portraits

 4th Grade Roy Lichtenstein Self Portraits

I found inspiration for this lesson from Sara Gutkind. I just changed it a bit to fit the needs of my classroom. There are tons of videos for kids on Roy Lichtenstein on YouTube. I used the one on Safe Tv for this lesson. 

Students used a 12" x 9" piece of multimedia paper and drew a self portrait. Remind them to sketch lightly!! 

My 4th graders could use a stencil with circles to add the dots or draw them free hand themselves with markers. The last steps were to trace them with a black marker and color the background with crayons. They did such an amazing job!! 

Kindergarten Jasper John's alphabet collages

 

Kindergarten Jasper John's alphabet collages

I found this great idea from Cassie Stephens art blog. You can find the original post here cassiestephens.blogspot. I always like to include artists so we discussed the art of Jasper Johns and viewed his alphabet collages. 

I provided each student with a 12" x 18" multi media paper with 28 boxes copied onto them. They used rubbing plates and neon construction paper crayons to create textures into each box. Lastly, they used neon tempera cakes to paint over each box. I had to really rush my kindergarteners so they could put the letters on the art during their next art class. If you don't have rubbing plates you can use cardboard squares and draw designs on them with glue. Cassie shows you how to make them on her blog. 

On day two I provided copies of the alphabet for students to copy the letters onto their papers with the paint daubers. I was so surprised on how well they did! They were careful and really enjoyed this process! Yeah! Just remind them to not squeeze the bottles. 

Thanks Cassie for the idea!