PRINTMAKING- and thinking backwards!

One project that really seems to bring about the "ooooohs" and "ahhhhhhhs" with students is PRINTMAKING. There is something about having an image magically apprear on the paper, when printed. Especially, when we do reduction process, where the students continue to print on top of the same picture 2 or 3 times, with different colors. Every pull brings new excitement as the image becomes more clear and detailed.

In this lesson, my 4th grade students drew a still life, which they choose from a variety of pictures, onto linoleum sheets. They then used the various gouges to cut the linoleum away, printing a different color as they took more and more off the surface. This really stretches their thinking as they have to think in reverse, understanding that what they carve away, will remain the last color they printed. Trust me........they really have to think!