Print Making

Description: For this activity we learned about print making and how it can be used. In groups we were assigned a ecosystem throughout the world and had to choose an animal from that ecosystem to base our print around. I was assigned Antartica and decided to do a penguin. On a piece of paper we were asked to draw our design. Once we were satisfied with the design we transferred our design to a styrofoam piece that we would later apply ink to to be transferred. We taped the paper on top of our styrofoam piece and used a pencil and a lot of pressure to trace over our design. You have to push really hard to get the transfer to go well when you apply the ink. Once our design is on the styrofoam, we then used ink rollers to apply the ink to our styrofoam. When applying the layer you want to make use there is enough to transfer but not too much where it goes into the outline of your design. Then carefully we flipped the styrofoam onto our paper. Once on the paper we pushed the styrofoam down and then pealed it off. My first print did not transfer well so we applied more ink and tried again. The second try worked better because there was enough ink on the styrofoam. 

Extension: This activity is a great one to allow students to see the environments that they are learning about. I would extend this activity by having students write a short story about someone else's creation. This activity will allow students to practice their writing skills while applying the knowledge they know about different environments around the world.