Armadillo Ray Printmaking

3rd Grade students read the book "Armadillo Ray" by John Beifuss and illustrated by Peggy Turley. Students noticed the bright, untraditional colors used to show the desert and it's animals. Students chose an animal to print and then drew their animal on a piece of styrofoam. Students used a brayer (roller) to roll ink on to their printing block (their styrofoam with their animal) and then printed their animal twice on different colored papers. Students then created the background habitat for their animal using oil pastels. They concentrated on using bright, unnatural colors for their background. Then they cut out one of their animal prints and glued it to their background.