Foam Reduction Shoe Prints With Grade 5

Before I got all caught up graduatin' and getting an art teacherin' job, I posted a WHOLE BUNCH about the long-term art sub gig I had at Fairgrounds Elementary School in Nashua. If you didn't see the posts, I did a series of them by grade level (Kinder and grades 1-4). I also taught grade 5 while I was there and did some fabulous projects with them. I thought that I'd break those projects out into individual posts, though, since they require a bit more detail to explain, etc. Here goes...

Sassy boots! This print was done on white paper.
First printing: red ink, second print: black ink.
The yellow you see is a piece of paper I matted the print on,
the red is the mat board.

The first day I met the fifth graders, I decided to do a simple winter-themed foam printmaking project with them to catch their attention and size 'em up. I had them create snowman images on foam and them print with one color (white) onto their choice of background paper--you can see this post here.

This print was done on white paper.
First printing: blue ink, second print: black ink.
The yellow you see is a piece of paper I matted the print on,
the red is the mat board.

It went so well, that I thought I would continue on with printmaking and do a 2-color printmaking project inspired by the “Killer Heels” exhibit currently at the Currier Museum of Art (actually, I don't think this is currently on exhibit anymore, but it WAS at the time).

This print was done on purple paper.
First printing: yellow ink, second print: blue ink.
The navy blue is the mat board.

Students created their own printing plate by using pencil to “carve” a picture of their shoe into a foam “plate.” Students then used brayers to apply ink to their plates and print 1 print. Week two, students added a ground line and background, chose a contrasting color of ink and reprinted their designs. These prints were mounted on mat board and displayed at the Currier Museum of Art during the New Hampshire Art Educator’s Association Annual Members Reception in March. 

All prints were mounted onto mat board to look fancy.
I think added little paper hinges to groups of three to four
and ribbon ties so that the pieces could be displayed accordion-style
or create triangular displays such as this
(I didn't know how they were going to be used exactly).

WOW! What place of honor--the buffet table,
right where everyone can see these fabulous prints--
although I think people were too busy looking at the awesome food
they were piling on their plates--YUM!

The final week, students worked as a class to create an assessment rubric that contained the important vocabulary words from the Shoe Reduction Print project. They also determined four attributes that should be found in their finished work. Now, having students create their own rubric was something I had only done with high school, but I really wanted the students to be able to see the value in their work and begin to see that assessment isn't something we teachers pull out of thin air. Was walking the students through the rubric creation difficult. Not really. Was it work to keep them focused? Yep. Did it take a lot of time? Nope--we had it done in about 15 minutes. Was it worth it (really)? You bet. They did a great job and I think it lent credibility to me, the art process and what they do in the art room. Creating rubrics with your students is also a great way to review vocabulary and objectives! Win/win! ENJOY!!

Here's the rubric the grade 5 students created.
Normally, I would type up my rubrics to look all fancy,
but I wanted the students to see that this was the one we
created as a class. Pretty good for a first try.

Detail of the top of the rubric--the vocab section.
They needed to think of three vocab words from the lesson
and decide as a class what a good definition would be. 

Detail of the bottom of the rubric--they needed to come up with
four objectives of the assignment. This was fun walking them through
being objective instead of saying "it looks cool!" I put #5 on there. :-)