2nd Grade Wild Things Printmaking

I wish I had more time in college. There were so many courses I wanted to take when I was in school, but there just wasn't enough time. I never took any printmaking classes. I really enjoy printmaking now and I made it a point last year to make sure I have a good printmaking lesson for each grade level. I wound up presenting about my printmaking curriculum at the AOE summer conference last year.

This is a project I've done for the past several years. My friend Drew Jones, another elementary art teacher in my district, wrote this lesson a while back. Since Drew is a cool dude, he shared it with me. 

This project uses the simple styrofoam printmaking material. After reading Where The Wild Things Are, each student does a ton of sketches in order to design their own original wild thing. The best one is pressed into the foam. Printing takes place over the course of two classes and the project is finished by mounting the prints on black paper and adding some words with construction paper crayons. It's a winner every year!

 

Click here to download the full lesson plan. 

Wild Things Printmaking by 2nd Grade

Welcome back to a chilly Ohio art room. Classes got off to a slow start after winter break due to the dreaded "Polar Vortex." We had wind chills here near 40 degrees below zero, so school was cancelled the first two days back from break. 

This project is just too much fun. My friend and colleague, Drew Jones came up with this lesson several years back and shared it with me. I've been using it since. I feel like this is a pretty strong printmaking project and it's inspired me over the last couple of years to come up with equally strong printmaking lessons for all of my other grade levels. Printmaking is something I enjoy, so it's been fun brainstorming and pinning ideas that I'll use later in the year. 

This particular project is inspired by the Maurice Sendak classic, "Where the Wild Things Are." It really allows my students to get really creative in designing their own wild thing. From a technical standpoint, this project is a pretty big jump from first grade where the printmaking was essentially just stamping. My students love the project as well as the process. 

Check out the lesson plan here!

2nd Grade Printmaking - Wild Things!

This project is a great one, but I can't take credit for it. Mr. Drew Jones, a colleague of mine, came up with this one a few years ago. Back in the days before we had kids to pick up right after school, a few of the younger art teachers in my district would get together once a month after school to share lesson plans and talk about what we were working on. I highly recommend doing this if you have the chance. It was like real-life Pinterest.

As you might imagine, this project is based on the fantastic book by Maurice Sendak. Where the Wild Things Are is one of those books that still totally holds up with students today. Each student comes up with several original sketches of their own versions of a "Wild Thing" before eventually transferring one of them to printing foam.

Kids love the process of printmaking. I really like the printing part of this project because it allows my students to be up and active around my room. I set up six stations with different ink colors. I have my students get two good prints the first day, then two additional on the second day of the project. That allows for plenty of time to have helpers clean up all of the printmaking supplies. The last step of the project is to cut out the prints, glue them to a piece of black construction paper, and write out the words "Wild Things" with construction paper crayons. If you haven't used construction paper crayons, they are pretty awesome. The are super bright on even dark paper and, get this, are ERASABLE! 

Check out the lesson plan here!

2nd Grade Wild Things - Special Display!

Here are a few of the pieces displayed at the Dublin branch of the public library!

I would like to start this post by thanking Loren Scully from the Dublin branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. She specifically sought me out because of her desire to display artwork from students in Dublin City Schools. I dropped off over 100 pieces of artwork from this project on Monday afternoon and they will be hanging in the children's area of the library through the end of February. Thanks Loren! Your efforts are greatly appreciated by my students, their parents, and me!


This is a project that I've done for a few years now and I really like it. It is similar in artistic concept to a fourth grade project that I posted recently. I'm looking forward to changing that project next year to make it a little more difficult. 


I start by reading Where the Wild Things Are and having the students discuss how Maurice Sendak created his wild things. We also talk about how Sendak is the author and the illustrator of the book. These are important concepts for this grade level and this is a great time to reinforce those ideas. Students discovered that Sendak's wild things are made up of lots of different animal parts. They had a great time creating several of their own wild things. On the second day of the project, the 2nd graders chose their favorite wild thing to press into a 4x6 piece of printing foam. 


We took 2 class periods to print. Each student made two prints each day. I'm working with 45 minute class periods with zero time in between classes, so having plenty of time for cleanup is pretty important with a messier project like this. My kids absolutely love to clean anything in the art room, so it's easy to find helpers to clean brayers and plexiglass. I'm sure parents are super jealous of how helpful their children are here. I'm not so sure that enthusiasm for cleaning translates to the home!


The last day is spent writing artist statements, cutting out the prints, mounting them to construction paper, and using construction paper crayons (they are super bright even on dark paper) to write "Wild Things." This project is absolutely loved by the students and comes out well every year. 


Check out my lesson plan here! It's free!!! 

2nd Grade Wild Things

2nd Grade students just finished an exciting printmaking project.  We started out by reading Maurice Sendak's classic book, "Where the Wild Things Are."  We discussed the features of the creatures in the book and each student designed their own unique wild thing.  The designs were then pressed into a foam printing plate and used to print multiple copies of the wild thing.  What you see above is the fantastic result of the project.  Way to go, 2nd Grade!

2nd Grade Wild Thing Illustrations

2nd grade students recently finished a project based on Maurice Sendak's classic book, "Where the Wild Things Are." After reading the story to each class and discussing how the pictures in the book were made, the story was broken into many individual sentences. Each student chose one sentence to interpret and illustrate in their own style.