Fantastic Fossils- Printmaking by 5th Grade

In their first project of the quarter, fifth grade boys looked at examples of real fossils in class before drawing their own fossilized plant matter, animal bones and skeletons and shells. They transferred their designs to rubber-like carving material and used a special tool called a gouge to carve out their designs. They then used traditional printmaking techniques to make a series of colored prints using natural earth tones for their ink and paper. Lastly, they pressed their designs into clay to make "real" fossil rocks. The prints are displayed in a series of three like the ones just below, but I took a close-up of each one so you can see them better: