Gyotaka Fish Prints

Second grade students looked at Japanese fish prints called "Gyotaka" to get their inspiration for this project. A traditional Gyotaka print is made using a real fish. The fish is inked and then printed on paper. We decided that it would be kind of smelly to print an actual fish so the second graders scratched textures on styrofoam pieces and we inked and printed those instead.

 The students printed on folders that are now being used at their sketchbooks.

 When we were finished we added some wiggly eyes and fins to the styrofoam fish. They were displayed as a colorful school of fish.