Friday, January 30, 2015

Well, That Was Downright Terrible

I had this great idea to combine printmaking and radial symmetry with third grade.  We were talking about Stonehenge, and I have this marker/crayon symmetry lesson that I've done forever, and everyone's successful with it (but for some reason I've never blogged about it).  Because I was tired of it, I decided to branch out and try something new.  It flopped.  Big time.  Here's my example, that I did step-by-step in front of my third graders:


We used leftover 3" x 3" styrofoam and markers on 9"x9" paper.  And this is the work my third graders produced:



I tried so many different suggestions and techniques, and they really didn't get any better:



This is one that I had to put back in the drawer and take a break from.  We're using the Egypt kit from the art museum right now and experimenting with Egypt paste that looks like it's from the year 1980 (more on that to come).  I shared the horrendousness of this marker symmetry printmaking lesson gone wrong with another art teacher and we both agree maybe they'd be ok (but not fabulous) as a background for something.  I've got some ideas, and if/when we get back to them I'll post an update.
Art teacher on, friends.

3 comments:

  1. Your post title cracked me up - especially right under your "Happy Art Teacher" sign :) - thanks for sharing! We have all been there. And you are right, you can use them as backgrounds or I can even see them cut into pieces and shared as a collaboration mosaic of some sort? Anyway, congrats on trying something new! Here's to better luck with the next one. Happy weekend!

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  2. I know the feeling, BUT I'll bet if you frame them with in black, leaving a little bit of the white showing they'd look pretty cool!!! Of course, you would have to forget about what your original objective was and look at them as lovely textural works:)))

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  3. Thanks for the support, ladies. I know things don't always work out, and I think sometimes we lose sight of that in this Pinterest/blogging world, because we always show the stuff that worked, know what I mean??? So I decided this year that I'd show the good, the bad AND the ugly,because sometimes those are the lessons I learn the most from!

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