Printmaking with Picture Books

by Joan Waites

With snow, sleet and rain still in the forecast, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that spring will ever arrive. One way to brighten up the classroom is to work on some springtime art and writing activities with your students, even though it may be a month or more till we see some green.

A project that is always big hit with my students (and one that produces successful results), is printmaking. When talking about and explaining how different types of prints are made, I will often use one or more picture books where the illustrations were created with prints (as opposed to painting, drawing, or digital art) to show as examples.

The artwork created by Caldecott winning artist Mary Azarian, is a great way to introduce students to the art of printmaking. In her one of many books, A Gardener’s Alphabet, Mary highlights her own garden filled with beautiful flowers. The illustrations are created with woodblock prints, which would be too hazardous a technique for little hands.  For making prints in the classroom, I use the simpler and safer technique below. Using this technique, have children illustrate some flowers in a vase or a garden scene as depicted in the picture book. Simpler lines and shapes produce better results as opposed to a lot of detail. Students could also write a short paragraph about their own garden, one in their community, or one they have visited. Ask them to describe the garden using details like smells, colors, and textures.

Making a Styrofoam Print

*Using inexpensive Styrofoam printing plates (purchased from art supply stores), or carefully washed, recycled meatpacking trays, have students draw with a pencil directly on to the plate, using firm pressure.

*Go over lines on the plate one more time, making sure the lines indented are thick and deep (without going all the way through the plate).

*Roll out some water-soluble printing ink or some heavy body acrylic paint with a brayer. If a brayer is not available, brush on paint with an inexpensive foam brush. Be careful to not fill the lines up with paint. If this happens, simply swipe out the excess paint from the lines with a pencil.

*Place a sheet of printing or other smooth paper on top of the inked plate, and firmly rub your hands over the paper using some pressure.

* Pull off the paper to reveal the print! The plate can be rinsed with soap and water, dried, and used again with different or multiple colors.

www.joanwaites.com   

SPRING TWEETS

by Laura Krauss Melmed

The ancient art of poetry and the much, much newer art of composing the Tweet both aspire to pack lots of punch into few words.  Sometimes these forms of communication intersect.   This was illustrated recently in an NPR story by Steve Inskeep about Nigerian writer Teju Cole.  Mr. Cole, who lives in New York City tweets at his Twitter account @tejucole.  His subject matter of late is (very) short stories based on small news items, those unattributed little articles found in metro sections which describe freak accidents and odd happenings.  Mr. Cole calls these stories “Small Fates.”  His first Small Fates project used items culled from researching a novel about Lagos.  Currently, his Tweets are based on items in New York newspapers of exactly 100 years ago. 

Mr. Cole’s tweets are often tragic or poignant and are obviously meant for an adult audience.  But at this time of year, having young students Tweet about how the world is springing back to life around them could provide a perfect structure for writing a poem.

The goal is for students to write a series of “Tweets” based on observations of springtime changes.  They will then put the Tweets together to form a 6-line poem.  These observations could take place either independently or following a short daily class walk or garden visit.  Show the students how to count the 140 characters allowable for each “Tweet.”  Stress that they will be using a different sense each day of the week to make their observations.  Make sure they know not to try to make these poems rhyme. 

Assign a sense to be explored for each of the five days of the school week. Students should then write a tweet a day for five days. Each should evoke a vivid picture, scent, sound, etc. through the use of such poetic devices as metaphor, simile, and personification. Daily Tweets can be written on index cards and displayed on a magnetic board for review and discussion. “Tweet” number six should summarize the student’s feelings about springtime. 

The students could illustrate their poems for a Spring Tweet display.    

Here is my own Spring Tweet poem:

Agreeable tulips nod heads together

ACHOO! A sneeze flies from an open window.

The scent of lilacs floats over me like a purple chiffon scarf

The breeze that tickles my bare arms also lifts a kite

If spring had a taste it might be asparagus

Somehow the world feels new.

http://www.laurakraussmelmed.com/