This year at Van Meter, we added a S.T.E.A.M. program that will focus on tons of learning, projects and fun around science, technology, engineering, art and math. My colleague and friend, Megan Algreen, who is our S.T.E.A.M. teacher, and myself, are collaborating, co-teaching and finding ways to integrate S.T.E.A.M. throughout the school community.
Our S.T.E.A.M. class is part of the relating arts rotations with library, Spanish and music, rotating weekly, with nine rotations throughout the year. We kicked off the year celebrating International Dot Day during the first rotation. Megan and I planned lots of activities and projects that focus around the special theme of Dot Day...making your mark on the world.
For the art part of S.T.E.A.M. during this rotation, we are focusing on printmaking with our 3rd through 5th graders.
After seeing this idea on Cassie Stephen's Instagram, we thought this would be a special way to kick off the year with our artists celebrating Dot Day and learning about printmaking.
Let me share how we did printmaking with pizza pans, paints, tools, fingers and more for Dot Day.
With this being the first lesson around printmaking this year,
I put together a short presentation with videos and photographs to talk about printmaking and this project.
I showed them the different tools used in printmaking and for our project, and talked about the process of using pizza trays, paint and other materials to create their unique dot print.
I even brought some prints I created in high school and college. They liked making connections to printmaking through these and asked lots of questions.
The kids couldn't wait to create a dot print!
At each table, Megan and I put out a pizza pan for each student. There was paint, small trays for mixing, water glasses, brushes and paper towels.
They loved painting on the pizza trays and came up with all kinds of realistic and abstract designs.
After they finished the painting, it was time for the printmaking.
They picked up a big paper circle and wrote their name on the back. They carefully placed it over their design on the pizza pan.
After they put the paper circle on top of the wet paint, they took their hands and smoothed it out while transferring the paint to the paper.
They were so happy and excited to see their finished project.
It was so fun to watch them create prints around their favorite things like Pokemon,
the night sky,
and even a cute little hedgehog.
Our students even came up with techniques of their own through this printmaking project. One of our 5th graders painted over the printed paper and pizza plate several times.
It was really cool to see her technique evolve.
All of our kids enjoyed painting and...
...coming up with their own designs. Even Mr. Tibbetts, our elementary principal, love joining the 4th graders and...
....creating his dot too.
Check out more of the dots created by our kids!
Every single one was beautiful. They were all very proud of their dot.
And as the last slide of the presentation said,
One of the MOST important things to remember is that everyone is an artist and has a special way to make their mark on the world.
You can sign up to celebrate International Dot Day with your kids, teachers and school community here too, friends.
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