Foam Printmaking

Recently, I did styrofoam printmaking with my 4th/5th grade classes. Styrofoam printing is a relatively easy way to introduce printmaking to a group of kids. It is messy and can be challenging, so I’m providing a video demonstration in this blog post.

The materials needed are:

• Thin styrofoam printing sheets (Amazon affiliate links have been used at no extra cost to you.)
• A pencil and ball point pen
• Scratch paper
• Piece of tape
• Brayer
• Water-soluble block printing ink
• Colorful paper to print on

For this project, I gave the students an open-ended theme. They could choose either 1. Something from Greek mythology (they were studying ancient Greece and Rome) or 2. Something from a book they read. This is very open-ended- it was just to give them a starting point. When they finished making one print, they could make another of anything they wanted.

On the first day, I showed them half of my demonstration video. Then, they sketched out ideas and transferred them to their printing plate.

On the second day, I showed them the second half of the video and then we started printing the images.

On the third day, any kids who were not done had time to finish up.

There is also a way to do Styrofoam printing using just washable markers. You can see a tutorial here.

Here is another lesson using Styrofoam printing of arctic animals with first grade.

This lesson on PEACE was a hit with my students.

Have fun creating your own Valentine’s day cards in this heart printing project.