Mill Valley School District Art Department

Printmaking Curriculum Map

Ceramics/Sculpture

Crafts/Photography

Art Department Philosophy

Statement

Through a robust
studio-based art curriculum,
students in Mill Valley
School District have
opportunities to explore a
variety of art media at every
grade level.

Painting
Mixed Media/Collage

Drawing

Studio Habits of Mind

Printmaking

Art Department Philosophy Statement

Mill Valley School District provides a robust studio-based art curriculum where students learn
to express personal ideas and feelings using their imagination, or observation. Students learn
to value originality, artistic freedom, and the art process.
The program places artistic expression at the center. Aesthetic values, art criticism, and art
history inspire and grow out of students' creative experiences. Students have opportunities to
make choices and cope with ambiguity and uncertainty as they exercise judgment in
solving artistic problems. Through the making of their own art, students invent, experiment,
discover, investigate, take risks, work through mistakes, and reflect. Students explore
different sources for inspiration: imagination, intuition, memory, and observation. They learn
from each other and they learn to value their creative process and product.

Studio Habits of Mind

Printmaking Overview

Key Vocabulary

Guiding Questions

Big Ideas

Printmaking
Resources
Related Museum Exhibits,
Websites, Books, Images,
Videos, Music

Understandings
By Grade Level

Connections
Artists Studied, Childrens
Literature, Cultural,
Historical, Cross-Cultural

Project Examples

Projects By Grade Level

Printmaking Vocabulary
ink, plate, brayer (roller), baren, needle, positive and negative image, mirror image, stamp,
rubbing, monoprint, monotype, relief print, sponge print, transfer print, intaglio, multiple
reduction, drypoint, etching, edition, carving, stencil, masking, collagraph, styrene plate,
multiple printing, registration, signing

Printmaking Guiding Questions

How does an artist make a print?

What materials and tools can be used to create a print?
What techniques do artists use to create a print?
What are the unique qualities of a print?
How and where do artists get ideas to make a print?

Printmaking Big Ideas

Printmakers may use tools and materials, such as plates, brayers, inks, graphite,
burnishers, paper, stamps, oil pastels, graphite sticks.
Printmakers make a plate from which to make prints.
Plates may be made in many ways:
o Painting on sponges or masonite boards
o Carving into a surface, such as styrene, soft-cut, plexiglass
o Making a collage of different textures
Printmakers make different kinds of prints using different processes:
Transfer prints, monoprints, monotypes, etchings, rubbings, collagraphs,
stamps, relief prints, intaglio, drypoint

Printmaking Resources
www.washingtonprintmakers.com
http://www.saltgrassprintmakers.org/
http://www.tomkillion.com/
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/inuit-printmaking/
http://www.crownpoint.com/page/printmaking

Printmaking Connections
John James Audubon
Marc Chagall
Salvador Dali
Albrecht Durer
Helen Frank
Helen Frederick
David Hockney
Katsushika Hokusai
Keith Haring
Lois Johnson
Tom Killion
Kathe Kollwitz

Printmaking Project Examples

Transitional Kindergarten: rubbings, stamping
Kindergarten: transfer prints
1st grade: embellished monoprints
2nd grade: styrene plates for multiple printing
3rd grade: collagraphs
4th grade: facial/figure relief prints
5th grade: drypoints
6th grade: James Audubon relief prints
7th grade: rubber stamp making
8th grade: surreal drypoints

Roy Lichtenstein
Rene Magritte
Henri Matisse
Amedeo Modigliani
Mick Moon
Henry Moore
Rembrandt
Miriam Shapiro
Andy Warhol
Endangered species
State birds and animals
Inuit culture

Printmaking Understandings By Grade Level

Transitional Kindergarten Students

Are introduced to rubbings using large texture plates and/or stamps

Create patterns using blocks or manipulatives
Demonstrate beginning skill in the use of printmaking materials
Use a variety of printmaking tools
Engage in self-directed play with printmaking materials
Engage in self-directed creative printmaking

Kindergarten Students

Build upon prior skills and understandings

Create with paint and/or ink on a surface (e.g. sponge, masonite board) and lifting a print
Use a brayer and printmaking plate
Use lines, basic shapes, and forms to make patterns in a print
Build skills in printmaking through experimentation
Engage in exploration and imaginative play with printmaking materials
Engage collaboratively in creating a print
Explain the process of making a print while creating

First Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and understandings

Make a monotype with paint and/or ink on a surface
Create an embellished print by working into a finished print with other materials
Use texture in an original print/rubbing
Explore uses of materials and tools to create a print
Engage collaboratively in exploration and imaginative play with printmaking materials
Use observation and inquiry for printmaking
Use art vocabulary to describe choices while creating a print

Second Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and understandings

Transfer drawings to a surface (e.g. styrene plate), ink the plate, and make multiple prints
Demonstrate beginning skill in the use of basic tools and printmaking processes, such as
rubbings with mixed media
Experiment with various printmaking materials and tools to explore personal interests
Brainstorm collaboratively multiple approaches to making a print
Make a print with various materials and tools to explore questions and curiosity
Discuss and reflect with peers about choices made in creating a print

Third Grade Students

Build upon previous skills and understandings

Make a collage with a variety of built-up surfaces, inking the plate, and printing the plate with
a printing press (i.e. collagraph)

Create an original work of art emphasizing rhythm and movement, using a selected printing
process (e.g. monotype)
Create personally satisfying prints using a variety of printing processes and materials
Elaborate on an imaginative idea for creating a print
Apply knowledge of available resources, tools, and technologies to investigate personal ideas
through printmaking
Elaborate visual information by adding details in a print to enhance emerging meaning

Fourth Grade Students

Build upon previous skills and understandings

Combine drawing printmaking and/or painting
Use accurate proportions to create an expressive portrait or figure drawing that becomes a
print
Explore and invent printmaking techniques
Brainstorm multiple approaches to printmaking
Set goals collaboratively about the printmaking process, and create a print that is meaningful
Revise a print in progress on the basis of personal reflection or insights gained through peer
discussion

Fifth Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and understandings

Carve into a surface to produce multiple prints using a printing press (e.g. drypoint)
Communicate values, opinions, or personal insights through printmaking
Experiment with and develop skills in multiple printmaking techniques and approaches
through practice
Combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for making a print
Identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation of personally relevant
content for creating a print
Create artist statements using art vocabulary to describe personal choices in printmaking

Sixth Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and understandings

Create increasingly complex original prints reflecting personal choice and technical skill
Select specific printmaking processes to express moods, feelings, themes, or ideas
Demonstrate openness in trying new ideas, materials, methods, and approaches in making a
print
Combine concepts collaboratively to generate innovative ideas for creating a print
Formulate an artistic investigation of personally relevant content for creating a print
Reflect on whether a personal print conveys the intended meaning, and revise accordingly

Seventh Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and understandings

Create a series of prints applying art elements and design principles
Demonstrate persistence in developing skills with various materials, methods, and
approaches in creating a print
Apply methods to overcome creative blocks in printmaking
Develop criteria for making a print to meet an identified goal

Reflect on and explain important information about a personal print in an artist statement or
another format

Eighth Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and understandings

Demonstrate an increased knowledge of technical skills in using more complex printmaking
tools and processes
Demonstrate willingness to experiment, innovate, and take risks to pursue ideas, forms, and
meanings that emerge in the printing process
Document early stages of the creative printing process visually and/or verbally
Apply relevant criteria to examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for a print in progress

Transitional Kindergarten
Exploring with Ink
to Make a Print

Kindergarten
Transfer Prints

Second Grade
Styrene Multiple Prints

Fourth Grade
Facial/Figure Monotypes

Sixth Grade
John James Audubon
Bird Relief Prints

First Grade
Texture Rubbings

Third Grade
Collagraphs

Printmaking Projects
By
Grade Level
Fifth Grade
Etching:
Carving Into a Plexiglass Plate

Seventh Grade
Relief Prints: Hand-cut Rubber
on Wood Cubes

Eighth Grade
Surreal Etchings

Transitional Kindergarten Project

Exploring with Ink to Make a Print
Goals/Key Understandings
Motivating Questions
- Use a variety of tools to make
a print
- Understand that many things
can be used to pick up ink and
stamp/make a mark on paper

What can an artist use to make a

print? What is stamping? What is
a print? What is ink?

Visual Arts Standards

2.1 Create patterns using
blocks or manipulatives

Studio Habits of Mind

Key Vocabulary
Engage and Persist
Express

ink, print, stamp

Connections
Children's books illustrated by
Margaret Chodos-Irvine

Resources
http://artfulparent.com/printmak
ing-ideas-kids

Assessment
- Teacher uses an in-process
assessment of student using a
variety of material to ink and
stamp to make a print.

Kindergarten Project
Transfer Prints
Goals/Key Understandings
Motivating Questions
Create a transfer print:
Ink a masonite board, place
paper down and make a
drawing, "pull" the print/paper,
and discover the print as a
mirror image

How does an artist make a

transfer print? What tools do
artists use to make a transfer
print?

Key Vocabulary

Visual Arts Standards

2.4 Make a print expressing
ideas about family or
neighborhood

Studio Habits of Mind

mirror image, brayer, printing

ink, plate, transfer print

Develop Craft

Assessment

Connections
Artists - Marc Chagall, Henry
Moore

Resources
Create prints inspired by Kim
Solga

- In-process student/teacher
reflection: Did the student go
through the process of making a
transfer print: use a brayer to
cover a masonite board with ink,
place paper over top, make a
drawing of
family/neighborhood, and pull
the print?

First Grade Project

Texture Rubbings
Visual Arts Standards
Goals/Key Understandings
- Discover objects in the
environment and in nature that
have texture
- Understand that a threedimensional texture can be
represented as a twodimensional pattern

Motivating Questions
What is texture? What objects
can be used to create a
successful texture rubbing?
How can rubbings be used to
make an interesting work of
art?

1.3 Identify the elements of art

in objects in nature, in the
environment, and in works of
art, emphasizing line, color,
shape/form, and texture
2.1 Use texture in
two-dimensional and
three-dimensional works of art
2.7 Use visual and actual
texture in original works of art

Studio Habits of Mind

Key Vocabulary

Develop Craft
Engage and Persist

rubbing, printing, texture

Assessment
Connections
Artists - Eric Carle, Leo Lionni,
Ezra Jack Keats

Resources
http://www.britannica.com/art
/rubbing

- In-process student/teacher
reflection: Did the student
understand what surfaces
would be printable? Did the
student use the tools/materials
successfully?

Second Grade Project

Styrene Prints/Multiple Printmaking

Goals/Key Understandings
Create a drawing, transfer it to
a styrene plate, ink the plate
multiple times with a brayer
and ink, and print

Motivating Questions
Visual Arts Standards
How do artists make a print
using a styrene plate? What is a
plate in printmaking? How does
an artist transfer a drawing to a
plate?

2.1 Demonstrate beginning skill

in the use of tools and
processes such as printing

Key Vocabulary

Studio Habits of Mind

print, plate, ink, brayer, multiple

prints, transfer, intaglio

Develop Craft
Engage and Persist

Connections
Inuit Culture
Conversations with a Native
American Artist
by Patrick DesJarlait

Resources
http://www.crownpoint.com/p
age/printmaking
http://www.thecanadianencycl
opedia.ca/en/article/inuit-print
making/

Assessment
- In-process student/teacher
reflection: Teacher-led group
reflection on printmaking
process

Third Grade Project

Collagraphs
Goals/Key Understandings
- Create a collage of textures
using rhythm and movement
- Make a print of the collage
using the printing press, and
know that this kind of print is a
collagraph
- Understand how an artist
makes a collagraph

Visual Arts Standards

Motivating Questions
What is a collagraph? What are
the steps in making one?

Vocabulary

2.6 Create an original work

using a printing process
emphasizing rhythm and
movement

Studio Habits of Mind

collage, collagraph, printing

press, rhythm and movement in
art

Develop Craft
Reflect

Assessment
Connections

Resources

Collagraph, a Journey Through

Texture by Kim Major-George

www.washingtonprintmakers.c
om

- In-process student/teacher
reflection: Peer discussion
about steps in making the
collagraph

Fourth Grade Project

Facial/Figure Monotypes
Goals/Key Understandings
Motivating Questions
- Use accurate proportions to
create an expressive portrait or
a figure drawing that becomes a
print
- Understand final outcome of a
mirror image.
- Understand the difference
between hand printing and
using the press

How do you accurately

represent the human
face/body? How do you plan
for a print knowing it will be a
mirror image? What is the

Visual Arts Standards

2.2 Use the conventions of
facial and figure proportions in
a figure study

difference between hand printing

and using the press?

Key Vocabulary

Studio Habits of Mind

mirror image, proportion, relief,

hand printing, baren, plate,
monotype

Develop Craft
Envision
Observe

Assessment

Connections
Resources
Artists - Keith Haring,
Henri Matisse, Amedeo
Modigliani, Pablo Picasso,
Miriam Shapiro

http://www.monoprints.com/h
istory.php

- In-process student/teacher
reflection: Student
self-assessment of facial
proportion and steps of relief
printing

Fifth Grade Project

Etching: Carving Into a Plexiglass Plate

Goals/Key Understandings
Create an intaglio print using
plexiglass plate

Motivating Questions
How does an artist create an
intaglio print? What tools and
processes does an artist use?

Visual Arts Standards

2.7 Communicate values,
opinions, or personal insights
through an original work of art

Key Vocabulary
iIntaglio, dry point, plexiglass
plate, etching needle, wipe out
a plate with cheesecloth, hand
colored print

Connections
Artists - Albrecht Durer, Helen
Frank, David Hockney, Lois
Johnson, Kathe Kollwitz,
Rembrandt,

Studio Habits of Mind

Engage and Persist
Develop Craft

Resources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I
ntaglio_(printmaking)
http://www.moma.org/collecti
on/artists/2678?locale=en

Assessment
- Peer discussion about tools
and process using printmaking
vocabulary

Sixth Grade Project

John James Audubon Bird Relief Prints
Visual Arts Standards

Goals/Key Understandings
Motivating Questions
- Create a relief print of a bird
inspired by the work of John
James Audubon
- Develop a clear understanding
of the steps needed to plan a
successful relief, registered
print

What are the steps involved in

making a relief print? How
does an artist make two images
aligned to become one relief
print?

2.1 Use various observational

drawing skills to depict a
variety of subject matter
2.5 Select specific media and
processes to express moods,
feelings, themes, and ideas
2.4 Create increasingly complex
original works of art reflecting
personal choices and
increased technical skill
4.4 Change, edit, or revise
works of art after a critique,
articulating reasons for changes

Key Vocabulary

Studio Habits of Mind

pattern, contrasting colors,

value, relief, registration,
brayer, bench hooks, artist's
proof, linoleum cutters and
handles, gouge, inks, and plate

Develop Craft
Envision
Engage and Persist
Stretch and Explore
Understand Art World

Resources
Connections
John James Audubon's Birds of
America
Artists - Katsushika Hokusai,
Tom Killion

https://www.audubon.org/birds-ofamerica
http://www.biography.com/people/
john-james-audubon-9192248
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/american
masters/john-james-audubon-draw
n-from-nature/106/
http://www.nyhistory.org/explore/j
ohn-james-audubon
http://www.tomkillion.com/

Assessment
- Rubric based on research,
composition, printmaking skills,
creativity and risk-taking,
craftsmanship, and Studio
Habits of Mind

Seventh Grade Project

Relief Prints: Hand-cut Rubber on Wood Cubes
Goals/Key Understandings

Motivating Questions

- Design a stamp that uses line

and shape
- Understand positive and
negative space
- Use the final stamps to create
formal and informal patterns

Which elements/principles of
art does an artist when using a
rubber stamp as a multiple
printing block?

Key Vocabulary

1.4 Analyze and describe how

the elements of art and the
principles of design contribute
to the expressive qualities of
their own works of art

Studio Habits of Mind

block, surface, ink pad, print,

reverse images, multiples,
pattern, radial symmetry, ghost
print

Develop Craft
Envision
Stretch and Explore

Assessment

Connections
Artists - Andy Warhol, Roy
Lichtenstein
Art Movements - Mail Art,
Fluxus, Dada

Visual Arts Standards

Resources
http://www.warhol.org/

- Teacher observation, student

reflection and completion of
task, students understanding
of concepts and techniques
based upon informal rubric

Eighth Grade Project

Surreal Etchings
Visual Arts Standards
Motivating Questions
Goals/Key Understandings
- Learn to work within the
confines of a specific genre
- Explore surrealism and specific
discipline of printmaking

What makes an image surreal?

Using the techniques of
cross-hatching, stippling and
hatching, how can an artist add
depth and texture to an
etching?

2.1 Demonstrate an increased

knowledge of technical skills in
using more complex
two-dimensional art media and
processes (e.g. printing press)
4.4 Develop and apply a set of
criteria as individuals or in
groups to assess and critique
works of art

Key Vocabulary

Studio Habits of Mind

hatching, cross hatching, value,

scale, stippling, texture,
Surrealism

Develop Craft
Envision
Understand Art World

Assessment
Connections

Resources

Artists - Rene Magritte,

Salvador Dali

www.visual-arts-cork.com/.../s
urrealist-artists.htm

- Students will follow the

correct procedures in preparing
the plate for printing and
produce three complete prints.
Students will use key concepts
of surrealism and include them
in their image.