The only other Thanksgiving project I teach

by Cassidy

by Alex

I love this fingerprint book by Ed Emberley.  I've used it on various occasions throughout the year and often pull it out to use the week before Thanksgiving for a quick one day project with my students.  First grade students printed pilgrims, a turkey and a native American this week as a part of the November printing unit.  They have mono-printed with ez cuts, Lego printed and finally fingerprinted for this unit.  I have a copy of the instruction page for each student to follow along and also lead the drawing using my document camera.  Students begin by making fingerprints using skin colored water based markers.  I also give each student a baby wipe to clean their one printing finger when they have completed the fingerprints.  The process reviews the line concepts of horizontal and vertical as prints are made on a piece of card stock.  After the markers are collected, students are given fine point drawing pens to add the details to the fingerprints and create their characters.   Again line is the emphasis here as correct words are given for each stroke.  Example:  draw two diagonal lines for the sides of the hat, add two parallel lines to form the top of the hat and the top of the hat band, etc.  I really view this process with an emphasis on line names and direction of line.  Some students add the words "Happy Thanksgiving" to the bottom of their cards which can be given to family members in honor of the holiday.

by Eva

by Annie

student work

by Julianna

student work

student work