Heads on Hollyhock

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For TBT today I'm taking a look back at one of my favorite lessons from last fall. I wanted something with a southwestern theme, and stumbled across a Pinterest Georgia O'Keeffe lesson. Liking the idea and being inspired by a book I had just read that was all about floriography (the symbolic language of flowers), I set out to teach something new. 

We spent the first day learning about O'Keeffe, her inspiration for the ram head series, and juxtaposition.

Then we drew the skull.

On the second day we talked about flowers and how each flower has a meaning. For example O"Keeffe uses a Hollyhock beside her skull, represent ambition. As part of their project,each student had to pick a flower to incorporate with there skull that sent a message about themselves.

The end results we beautiful.

Sugar Skulls

Dia de los Muertos came quickly this year as other projects took longer than projected, that I almost decided to let it go. But it's my favorite and instead decided to focus on Calaveras, or Sugar Skulls. Here is what my amazing kiddos accomplished in three classes.

3rd grade worked on paintings...

Day 1: consisted of the shapes it takes to make a skull and laying down the first layer of color.

Day 2: we painted a black outline, focusing on traditional symbols, such as flowers, hearts, crosses and spiderwebs.

Day 3: was the fun day, adding the colors. We discussed how these skulls needed to look like they were made out of candy, and to decorate them like a cake or cookie, with delicate touches.

4th grade followed the same schedule, only their first day consisted of paper mache' and ended with glitter! Perks of advancing in art skills each year, evolving in materials!

Aren't they sweet?!

Happy Monday!