1st and 2nd Grade Art

With the completion of the ink and pastel landscapes, we quickly moved into our next unit. One of my favorite elements of teaching this age student is the development of their imagination. They are beginning to realize the difference between reality and fantasy, between fact and fiction. I try to balance this stage of development with the "Monster in the Closet" printing project. We talk about our imaginations, how we can make something seem real just by picturing it with great detail in our minds. The students sketched out their imaginary monsters, using various animal textures for reference. We often use the phrase "The more details, the more interesting the story" to remind everyone to add enough information to convey their ideas. After they created several sketches and ideas, the next class was used to transfer the ideas onto a foam printing plate. We learned about other printing techniques artists use and learning that some artists engrave metal for prints made the pressure needed for our prints seem easier! I was so pleased to see that most of the "monsters" created were not at all scary or frightening, but highly imaginative and creative. Next week brings inking the plates and pulling some prints.

Examples of the monsters drawn on the foam printing plate