Let’s start with leaves, a printmaking unit.

At our school we have an awesome library and in fact, we have wonderful, and helpful librarians who were able to find great books to get us started. For the first class in this unit I simply took the kids out to our school garden and they were to draw leaves, or any other nature treasures they wanted to draw in their sketchbooks. The sketchbooks are these composition books which we personalized with magazines images and words. 

Seeing as this is fall and flowers are drying out for the winter, the kids got very excited about seeds. Seeds were everywhere. This child here is pocketing some seeds to take home and plant. Their high level of excitement was energizing to witness and I knew we were on a good path to learning. 

             During the walk we also collected some "treasures" and I took the time to individually display them in these clear pockets. I used clear tape to tape each natural treasure to a white paper and stuck the papers in the clear pocket. The next class (class #2) kids were given these cards as a resource. Using black markers (felt pens/sharpies) kids tried drawing what they saw. They were so incredibly fun to watch. I have a class set of these small private eyes, they are small, individual-use magnifying glasses. The kids were so interested and intrigued by what they found when looking through them. 



The drawings from this second lesson were just to die for!! Each one could easily be on a t-shirt or a printed card. 


I am so excited about these drawings. They just make me smile. Kids' drawings will always trump any drawings adults could make, they look effortless and spontaneous. 

Tweeted: "Drawing the items we found yesterday during our nature walk using loops #scienceconnection #apsarts #artsed #cis_aps ⁦@SrPadillaAPS⁩ ⁦@Cante2_CIS⁩ "

Transferring our drawings onto the printing plate. 


Using scratchfoam and pens to press down, make the lines thicker and color in a few shapes. 

These printing plates are ready to be printed. 


Our initial prints. I provided them with assorted, colored fadeless paper and ONLY black ink. In the past I have given them various ink colors and white paper...but, I find the doling out of one color onto the trays much easier than constantly being asked to provide a specific color to a specific table. The assorted fadeless paper allows me kids control of some color while allowing me a bit more freedom to actually walk around and assist where needed. 

Mr.Welsh's kindergarten class create prints from their individual stamp designs they created last week.

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Nature drawings help children learn to look and draw realistically

These are amazing drawings done by a Kindergarten artist. We first talked about what lines and shapes are. Then I demonstrated how to really look at a real leaf and simply represent what they see on their paper. If your child has not yet brought in a sketchbook for art, please send them in. For this lesson we had to do the sketches on paper because most students have not yet brought in their sketchbooks.

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kindergarten artists used their sketches of real leaves to create these 'stamps'. We will be making monoprints with these next week.

Children used their last week's sketches of real leaves to create these stamps. They first looked through their sketchbooks and chose a leaf they liked. They then drew a larger version of the leaf on a piece of cardboard and cut it out. Next they used pre-cut strips of manila folder paper and added the 'veins' on their leaves.

Next week we will use printing ink to make limited edition 'prints' of their leaf print. can't wait to see these prints!! Check back next week for updates on this printmaking unit.

5th Graders print their abstract insect parts stencils on their mural paper

In the art room most kids stand while working so they have a better view of their work from above. Kids in the art room work very well independently.

A stencil designed by a 5th grade artist....to be used on our abstract insect part mural.

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Our 3D trees are DONE!!!! Ta da!!

I promised I'd post the pictures of the kids finishing up their tree and here they are. Notice our trees look amazingly sturdy. We painted the brown. We then created leaf printing plates based on real leaf sketches of trees right here at Murch. We then printed, trimmed and glued on these trees....only took six 45 minutes lessons.....but what a journey it's been.

This is a different Murch tree, hence the different looking leaves. After break I will take the kids out to the school and see if we can find our matching tree in the yard. Very exciting stuff!!

We've been asked to help with the set of Little Red Riding Hood, and these trees will be used in the set for two days. I will then have the children vote on where they could be placed on display.

Backdrop for Little Red Riding Hood (3RD)

Since 3rd graders have been working on lesson plans related to the Murch garden or trees on our property, this one particular class studied varied ways to make the color green. Green generally is the mix of blue and yellow. Yet, artists learn that when you tweak that basic recipe and add more blue, you get another color. And when you add more yellow, you also get a new color.

For this activity, these children were given blue, yellow, white and black and told to create as many variations of green as they could.
These explorations will later be used for the backdrop for the play, Little Red Riding Hood happening in May at Murch with some of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes.

When the class ended, I told them that today they probably invented a new green. I don't think they will ever see any color in a singular way again.

Leaf Prints- A peak

Prints, prints and more prints. 1st graders worked on printing the leaf prints they designed last week. Such an amazing array of leaves. When you see them you would think they were professionally designed. Check out some of these prints.

The ink needs a day to dry. They are hanging in the art room until tomorrow when I collect them and hold them until next week when we will assess our work and think of ways to create a flawless print. you too could do this at home. Just buy block printing ink from Michael's. Cut 4"x4" squares from the meat trays and have them use a pen to draw an image. Make sure they thicken the lines so that the image comes through clearly.
Here are the stamps after we used them. Still as beautiful. I will be washing them and we will be using them next week to make a group print project.

1st Grade Leaf Paintings-(Bergin)

Last week children learned how to create various types of marks using a thin flat brush.

This week, they used their skills learned in using a brush to paint giant leaf paintings.

Since we are working with lines, leaves are a perfect subject in which to explore this topic.