Colors of India

Henna Hands and Elephants on Parade

 The first graders are creating some masterpieces based on the culture of India.  They are learning about India in their classroom, and in art class we are making lots of designs that show radial symmetry and organic imagery that can be seen in the art of mendhi and rangoli.  Pictured here are three projects.  They cut colorful hands and decorated them with mendhi designs, using brown marker as their "henna".  They looked at photos from a parade in India that included elephants, and they made their own colorful elephant with crayon and watercolors before placing it on a colorful background with radial designs.  Below, you can see students trying to create sand designs.  They watched a video about rangoli artists before using traced shapes to create their own template to fill with colorful sand.  They will be making saris and Diwali lanterns for a fashion show next week! 

Radial Symmetry with Rangoli