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There are innumerable topics to cover in the subject of Visual Arts, but one of my favorite things to teach is traditional printmaking. In this age of technology it is very easy to simply copy, paste, and print something out. It is easy to forget - or never learn about - the evolution of hand-printed materials as artwork. My students come to my art room beginning as kindergarteners and leaving as 6th graders. From kindergarten to 3rd grade we are together in my Metro North classroom where we learn basic printmaking concepts like stamping, transfer tracing, and mono printing. As 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, we are together in my Sharp Creek art room. My employment at this school is recent and the classroom has no printmaking equipment! As students get older, armed with an understanding of printmaking learned in earlier grades, they are ready to engage in more advanced printmaking skills, like carving their own designs for block printing. Traditional block printing is created by carving a design into a surface, inking that surface, and transferring the inked areas to paper. Witnessing their original design seeming to magically appear on a fresh paper, being able to experiment with and change colors of the design, and creating several prints in a short time is extremely exciting and satisfying for young artists. The block printmaking process not only exposes students to a new artistic technique, but it teaches history, develops design thinking, planning, revision, color theory, and craftsmanship. ScratchFoam Board Printing Plates will be used by 4th and 5th graders to easily and safely "carve" designs using pencils, while the Soft Kut Printing Blocks will be carved by 6th graders. (We already have the carving tools.) Brayers (ink rollers), inks, and inking trays are the basics that will get us started!

About my class

There are innumerable topics to cover in the subject of Visual Arts, but one of my favorite things to teach is traditional printmaking. In this age of technology it is very easy to simply copy, paste, and print something out. It is easy to forget - or never learn about - the evolution of hand-printed materials as artwork. My students come to my art room beginning as kindergarteners and leaving as 6th graders. From kindergarten to 3rd grade we are together in my Metro North classroom where we learn basic printmaking concepts like stamping, transfer tracing, and mono printing. As 4th, 5th, and 6th graders, we are together in my Sharp Creek art room. My employment at this school is recent and the classroom has no printmaking equipment! As students get older, armed with an understanding of printmaking learned in earlier grades, they are ready to engage in more advanced printmaking skills, like carving their own designs for block printing. Traditional block printing is created by carving a design into a surface, inking that surface, and transferring the inked areas to paper. Witnessing their original design seeming to magically appear on a fresh paper, being able to experiment with and change colors of the design, and creating several prints in a short time is extremely exciting and satisfying for young artists. The block printmaking process not only exposes students to a new artistic technique, but it teaches history, develops design thinking, planning, revision, color theory, and craftsmanship. ScratchFoam Board Printing Plates will be used by 4th and 5th graders to easily and safely "carve" designs using pencils, while the Soft Kut Printing Blocks will be carved by 6th graders. (We already have the carving tools.) Brayers (ink rollers), inks, and inking trays are the basics that will get us started!

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About my class

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