Rangoli Drawings

This year the focus for Cultural Heritage Week in my district has been India. Each art student in the district, K-12, has made artwork inspired by the culture of India. My K-3rd grade students each had a set assignment and the 4th-6th grade students had multiple starting points from which to branch out and choose a direction. 

3rd grade students learned about rangoli, which are created during Diwali celebrations. You can find the lesson plan on the smARTteacher, but I'll go ahead and post the basics below.

Start with square construction paper. I cut down 9x12 inch paper to 9 inch squares. I went ahead and chopped the scraps into 1 inch strips that will be used for paper weaving.

Trace a circle in the center of the paper. We used big cans from the lunch room. Place a dot in the center of the circle and 6 or 8 dots evenly spaced around the perimeter.

Next, students create radial designs. I describe it to them as making a pizza where each slice is the same. After the designs are planned in pencil, students add color with construction paper crayons or color sticks.  True rangoli are usually created by drawing with sprinkled powder or paste onto the ground. I wanted students to be able to get part of that experience so after they finished coloring, students had the option of tracing part of their designs with glue and sprinkling sand over the top.

 Only one or two students decided not to add sand. Sand is always a big hit!

We loved how this project turned out. India is such a colorful culture and the students have been so excited to learn about it.

Japanese Family Crests

Japanese Family Crests are similar in concept to a Western Coat of Arms. They were the inspiration for my 6th grade East Asian lesson for Cultural Heritage Week. If my internet sources are correct, Mon means "crest" and Ka-Mon means "family crest". 

I introduced the lesson with a PowerPoint, we discussed, and then I gave a quick demo. We focused on crests starting with a circle since many examples we saw have radial designs. When I was researching, I drew parallels between design elements in the crests and Yin-Yang. I found that Yin-Yang started in China but was used in Japan. That seems to be a trend in Japanese Art- adapting things that began in China. I don't know if any experts would mention Yin-Yang and Mon, but it made me feel like an Art Historian to see a possible connection and research it. :)

Japanese Crests Ka-Mon

The students found the center of their paper by using their paper to connect diagonal corners (the center of the resulting "X" is the center of the paper) and used that dot as the center point for drawing a circle with a compass. I always suggest that the students hold the compass steady and swivel the paper. That seems to work better for most of us than trying to rotate the compass without adjusting the size. After the circle was created, the students had tons of freedom as far as how to create their crests. I just ask them to try to achieve a balance of positive and negative space (we talked about how patterns are a good way to do this.) If the students didn't know where to start, I suggested they think of something that represents them or their family and simply that into a symbol or look through the examples for inspiration. Example: One student is really into Boy Scouts so he used a canoe paddle as the central image in his design. I found a great PDF with a lot of examples* that was easy to print off enough copies for each table. The PDF was a great resource for the students. After our quick reminder discussion about inspiration vs. copying prior to starting, everyone did a great job. This website also has a lot of images and this one has history and compares Japanese Crests to Coat of Arms.

*It's a small world! One of my students was really excited that he found his family crest in the PDF. He said his mother is half Japanese. I've seen a wide range of estimates about the number of Family Crests that exist and 10,000 seems to be middle of the road. What are the chances that I just happened to print off a PDF with a very small sample of Japanese crests and one of my students in Kansas found HIS family's crest? Pretty cool!

The first day was reserved just for drawing with pencil. Most students needed the majority of the second day to finish planning. I asked them to lightly mark with pencil which areas would be filled in black and to let me check it before they started with marker. I told them it's always good to have another set of eyes check to see if your patterns make sense. After getting their plans checked, the students set to work filling in the designated areas with black permanent marker.