Aren't Field Trips Fun? and a Quick Printmaking Activity

On Thursday April 8th, we took 57 students from Danby, Vermont for a long ride over the mountain to visit the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass.  While there, the group learned about reading pictures in the museum library.  In the gallery we viewed some really great art by Eric Carle. We learned about printmaking and saw woodblock prints in a special exhibit by artist and picture book illustrator Antonio Frasconi.  His prints are beautiful.  Now I'm on a mission to locate his books.  After breaking for lunch in the sunbathed courtyard, students visited the art studio to try their hand at making some prints of their own.  

We'd like to give very special thanks to our teachers and paraprofessionals whose willingness to come in early and leave late made our visit possible.  Thanks to parents who joined us on our trip! Thanks to the Target field trip grant for providing the bus. 

This was a cute make-and-take for any age.  To make the stamp, students glued pre-cut, sticky-back foam pieces onto a cardboard base.  The stamps were inked on homemade ink pads.  These looked super easy to make.  They were nothing more than a thin foam sponge glued onto a Styrofoam tray (looked like a section of a super market meat tray).  Thinned black tempera paint was squeezed out of an old dish detergent bottle onto the ink pads as needed by our instructor.  Each child was given an accordion book to stamp.  Those who finished early were given colored pencils to embellish or write in their books.