Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Gumplegutch!

April is poetry month! Here is a poem by Shel Silverstein that has inspired a first grade art project:
The Gumplegutch
Go over and play with the Gumplegutch, Tommy,
The Gumplegutch loves to play.
You can bounce on his belly,
And call him Old Nellie,
And fill up his nostrils with clay.
Don't be 'fraid of his fangs,
Or his one yellow eye,
Or the scales on his tail, my dear.
Go over and play with the Gumplegutch, Tommy,
There's nothing at all to fear.
I will wait over here.

First graders searched for descriptive words to give us clues about the Gumplegutch's appearance. Once we had identified the descriptive words, each student imagined what the Gumplegutch looks like. Students each created a collagraph print of their creature.

First, we made a collage of our Gumplegutch using thick paper.


The following week, we used our collage as a printing plate. We inked the plate using a brayer, put a piece of paper on top of the plate and then burnished.


And VOILA! A Gumplegutch print: