6th Grade Line Printmaking

My 6th grade students recently ventured into printmaking for the first time. The theme was open, I just told them to stick to lines and shapes. I asked the students to make a couple sketches and then pick the best one to transfer to the scratch foam plates (I order 4x6 inch packs of 100 from Sax). The second class period was for finishing transfers and printing. I gave the students cheap white drawing paper for their practice print then they chose a piece of neon colored paper for their final print. I had actually ordered a big pack of fluorescent origami paper but decided to trim it into rectangles to print on. It was a big hit! The only drawback was how many students forgot that one side was white and ended up printing on the plain side of the paper. And, I had a hard time getting the colors to photograph true but that was likely a white balance issue... Anyway, enjoy their work!

I used an old example plate and print to help illustrate the steps on my giant bulletin board. I also added some vocabulary. I plan to use the bulletin board part as a "word wall" and next year to display student writing in the form of artist statements.

Here's the full bulletin board. At the time, I had divided the board into 3 sections- one for each grade's lesson at my intermediate school. The bulletin board is working out great so far!