African Masks

Here are some African mask projects my students have created through the years. We usually read the book Who's In Rabbit's House and look at a variety of wooden masks from Africa. I was lucky enough to have been given these my first year of teaching! 5 beautiful wooden masks were brought to me from a parent who found them in a box out for garbage! My students love looking at them and drawing from them. Our museum also offers a lending program where teachers can borrow objects, such as masks, and return them after a few weeks. I have built my own curriculum box for African Art, complete with music, handouts, coloring pages, books, stamps, and the treasured masks. It's been a great teaching tool!

This mask was made by a fourth grader using sand, colored yarn, and beads.

This mask was made using yarn, noodles, and beads. Then we dabbed gold and bronze paint over our masks!

These masks were styrofoam prints embellished with gold paint and oil pastels.

Calaveras

Fourth and fifth graders learned about the celebration Los Dias de los Muertos, when families in Mexico honor their ancestors with colorful art, traditions, and fiestas. Decorations like intricately cut tissue paper (papel picado) and paper mache skeletons can be seen as decorations. Students had fun designing their calaveras (skeletons).

Mexican Bark Paintings



Mexican Bark Paintings
by Third Grade Artists

I love teaching children about different cultures. This project was one of my most successful! After viewing many examples of Mexican Folk Art and bark paintings, children used oil pastel and paint on brown paper to create their masterpieces!



Aztece Sun Stones

Fifth graders recently studied the Aztec Sun Stone in Art class. The Aztecs lived in Mexico from around 1300-1500 AD. They worshipped the sun because it provided life to all people. They carved a huge stone disk, three feet thick and almost twelve feet in diameter that is now known as the Sun Stone or the Aztec Calendar. When the Conquistadores arrives, it was buried after no one was able to destroy it. In 1760 it was found buried in Mexico City and is now in the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

The Stone shows how the Aztecs believed the world went through four creations and destructions. They used glyphs, or picture symbols, to communicate meaning. It is a complex and fascinating calendar system with the face of the sun in the center of the radial design.

Fifth graders were able to create their own radially symmetrical design using gylphs. They began with pencil and repeated shapes around the circle and creating an interesting sun face. They added paint and marker, finishing their projects with cut pieces of construction paper!