Lines, Paper and Everything Else Art Blog: International Studies Block Printing Lesson

"Pulling a Print"

We have been busy-busy in the art room for the past couple of months. After the long winter break, I began rolling out power points on the International Study Focus for each elementary grade level to apply to our Block Printing Project. Each child was to design their own building/ship using design elements from their International Study per grade level. We designed in our Art Journals, transferred the design to foam blocks using a relief technique and used brayers and special block printing ink to produce gorgeous prints.

Here is what our kids are learning in art:

1st: Asian Architecture
2nd: Ancient Greek Architecture
3rd: Viking Architecture
4th: Middle Ages (Romanesque & Baroque Architecture)
5th: European Explorer Ships

Our SECRET PASSWORDS for this study have included: Block Printing, Architecture, International Focus, Pulling (a print), Texture, Editing

It has been fascinating for me not only to learn about these different architectural design elements, but to be able to teach them to the children has given me great pleasure. Our school architecture is actually modeled after Greek Architecture we noticed as a class (2nd grade) see evidence below.

As a class, we were able to determine they used Doric Columns (the most simple) for our building.

I introduced a lot of new vocabulary in each of the grades. The biggest reward was having the children make connections to the ideas I was teaching when they were visiting places, such as Epcot Center, which has information there about Viking Houses in Norway.

All in all, this was a fantastic learning experience for me and the children to help tie in to the International Study Focus in the classrooms as well. The children and I have also created classroom banners to proudly display our interpretation of each study with fabric pennants and our "best" block print. Enjoy the photos. More to come if I can remember to take my camera more often!