2nd Grade Indian Elephants

My second grade project for our Cultural Heritage study on India this year involved learning about the significance of elephants in Indian culture and the beautiful block printing method used for textiles. The students created stamps out of cardboard and foam and used that the create a patterned background. Then, the students drew elephants and glued them in the center of the printed background. I typed the lesson up to share on the smARTteacher in November. You can see the complete lesson HERE. 

Procedure:

1. Introduction
-Briefly talk about India, show location on map
-Explain that art is infused into Indian culture
-Block printed textiles from India are very beautiful and detailed. Explain and look at pictures of fabric and printing process.
2. Show how to make a stamp with cardboard and foam (instead of carving wood like most of the blocks from India.) Remind students that they have to cut shapes instead of lines. "Lines" can be made by cutting very thin shapes.
3. Students cut foam shapes, check with teacher, and then glue to cardboard when approved.
4. Print stamps
-Students choose construction paper
-Use paintbrush to apply black tempera to stamps (this helps my students not get too much)
-Start in a corner and stamp along edges first.
-Talk about how rotating or flipping the stamp can create a different kind of pattern.
-Filling in middle is optional. Just printing a "frame" also looks nice.
5. Introduce Indian elephants
-Look at pictures of Indian elephants and artwork including elephants
-Elephants were the traditional mode of transportation for Indian royalty
6. Make elephants
-Students draw Indian elephants on 6x9 inch white paper
-Trace pencil drawings with sharpie
-Color elephants with crayons or colored pencils
7. Cut out elephants
-Remind students to turn the paper, not their scissor hand, and to be careful with dangly parts like the tail and trunk
8. Glue elephants in center of printed papers

- See more at: http://www.thesmartteacher.com/exchange/resource/1405/Indian-Elephants#sthash.pgcPE7Zu.dpuf

I love how the printed papers turned out. Some students flipped or rotated to create more complex patterns. Lots of good math connections.

A lot of "India" projects I've seen use elephant tracers... while my students' elephants may not look like you'd expect, it was more important to me for them to practice looking and drawing than to have a perfect elephant. Besides, look at all the personality!

CHW India: Animals

Indian animals were one of the starting points for my 4th-6th graders' Cultural Heritage Week projects this year. India has some really beautiful, interesting animals. On my "choose your own adventure" bulletin board, one section had a list of Indian animals and some facts, like that the Bengal Tiger is the country's national animal and the Peacock is the national bird. I found a color photo of each of the animals I listed to display on the bulletin board and printed off reference photos showing most animals from multiple angles. How the students chose to use the animals in their artwork (or whether they went an entirely different direction) was up to them.

 Many students chose to create realistic drawings.

I wish you could see this 4th grader's drawing in person. I had to adjust the photograph because the colored pencil on black paper is subtle, but it is really cool.

Some students used my mehndi cheat sheet and worked the patterning into their composition.

You should enlarge this photo and read the artist statement. She was so thoughtful with her choices!

 Some students used the same idea in printmaking.

Two students asked if they could make handprint peacocks. I told them if they made it not look like a handprint turkey, they were welcome to try. They turned out kind of fun. :)

Art Tissue + India

Over the summer I saw a Facebook post from Pacon looking for bloggers to test out some products. I answered and was delighted to receive Spectra® Bleeding Art Tissue, Art1st® Multi-Media Paper, and a Classroom Keepers® Activity Tray. I found the paper they sent to be pretty sturdy and it held up well to the water used with the bleeding tissue paper. When we ran out of the multi-media paper and had to switch to the sulphite drawing paper in the cabinet, it tended to curl up a lot more with the tissue process. While I put the Activity Tray together super easily, I keep changing my mind about what to use it for so in the words of Forest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that" (for now).

Spectra® Bleeding Art Tissue creates really cool color effects.

Starting points for India projects

Each grade learned about India and created an art project inspired by the culture in the first 9 weeks. I had used the Spectra® Bleeding Art Tissue to test out an idea for 4th-6th grade, drawing an elephant with crayon and applying the art tissue over the top, creating a resist. Most of the students who chose to try a similar idea wanted to be much more detailed with their patterns, so they planned in pencil, and traced with sharpie instead. Elephants were a popular choice, but not the only option for students. I had several starting points and students could branch out and connect ideas to come up with their own direction. As long as they could explain how their art related to something they learned about India, it was good with me! 

I did not assign the students to learn about a particular element or principle, but check out how this student took the idea of a peacock, the national bird of India, and created patterns!

This 6th grade student told me she "messed up" because the shapes from the tissue on the right were not as clear as on the left. I thought it was beautiful and do not think she messed up at all!

"Painting" with the tissue over a drawing of an Indian animal was by far the most popular choice. I had the students use a brush to apply water to their paper, set the tissue on one piece at a time, and use the brush to press it onto the paper.

Sometimes the color seeps in irregularly but I like the effect.

The tissue can be applied in a patchwork kind of design with squares and mixed up colors, or it can be applied strategically, matching colors to the field you are coloring in, such as blue tissue on water. Since most students wanted mixed up colors, I took a stack of assorted art tissue to the paper cutter, chopped it into 1.5 inch strips, then chopped the strips the other direction to create a bunch of mostly equally sized squares. Most students removed the tissue when dry as the color seeped into the paper, but you can also use watered down glue or mod podge to keep the tissue on the paper, adding texture and intensifying the color. 

Many students also used the tissue over a drawing of their hand with mehndi designs or as a background. 

The students and I especially loved the Spectra® Bleeding Art Tissue and I already ordered some more so the primary kids can try it out. I know they'll enjoy it just as much. I haven't checked other places, but it's pretty affordable from Sax, which is where I order all of my school supplies.

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Kindergarten Holi Portraits

This year our Cultural Heritage Focus was India. My K-3rd grade students each had a more structured lesson while the 4th-6th grade students chose their starting point. Kindergarten students learned about the Holi festivals in India.

First, we watched this news video:

Next, we looked at photos from National Geographic. They're beautiful, check it out!

I asked the students to think about what it would be like at the Holi festival and imagine they were in attendance. The students drew a self portrait and some added a friend or family member with them. The students traced the drawings with sharpie and then we added color, which was the most fun part. As soon as I saw pictures of the colored powder being thrown at the Holi festival, it made me think of powdered tempera.

Students placed their drawings in boxes, used dry paintbrushes dipped in powdered tempera to sprinkle color on top, then we sprayed with water to activate the paint. When the projects dried, I "fixed" them with hairspray.

Powdered tempera is super cheap and pretty brightly colored.

My first class used crayons because I was thinking it would create a resist. I always forget that Kinders have a hard time pressing hard enough with crayons, especially at the beginning of the school year, to create a good resist. We switched to just sharpie line drawings in the next class.

Students did need supervision while applying the powder. Some wanted to just dump a whole bunch in one spot so I had to give reminders about sprinkling and spreading it out. 

Watercolor paper would have been preferable to the drawing paper which wanted to curl as it dried, but I was able to flatten the artwork pretty well.

We have a bunch of powdered tempera left. While I don't like painting with it as intended, I think there are some good possibilities for the sprinkle and spray method!