Update and Neighborhood Collagraphs

Wow!  I've been gone for quite some time so there's much to update.  Second Graders are just about completing a big printmaking unit that coincides with their Social Studies unit about urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods.  We spent the first day of the lesson discussing all the things that make our community urban and the various things we see while traveling in it (the stores, cars, people, tall buildings, and so on).  We learned that geometric shapes (shapes found in Math) and organic shapes (shapes found in Nature) can be used in creating a collagraph plate of a part of our neighborhood using manila folders.  This took about two class periods.  Afterward I introduced the tools used in creating a print (brayer, printmaking ink, and of course collagraph plate).  We went over the steps in creating a print, and two by two I had students come over to the "inking station" and ink their plates while the other students worked on an activity sheet.  The fourth day students used pieces of scrap paper to create a symmetrical boarder around their print (we'll need a fifth day for all students to complete their prints, it's tough only having two brayers available!).