Day of the Dead Paper Mache Egg Skulls

During the last week of quarter one (of 8th grade) we had a little fun creating something unexpected- Paper Mache Egg Skulls for Day of the Dead.

A wonderful community member had donated hundreds of little brown paper mache eggs to our classroom this summer and I was stumped on what we were going to do with them. Day of the Dead was fast approaching at the end of the quarter  and it just made sense to turn them into mini 3D works. We had a blast with this and it was a great review on symmetrical, asymmetrical and radial balance...especially when we watched So Craftastic's YouTube video on clay roses. She is a hoot! (We made our roses out of Model Magic).

Day of the Dead Calaca Collage Collaboration

In our middle school course scheduling, 8th graders take both Spanish and Art as quarter classes during first semester. Since the classes are offered back to back in the fall, we (Mrs. Einerwold, Mrs. Peroddy and myself) organized a collaborative project that combined both a Dia de los Muertos iMovie video project with a paper collage artwork.

Check out the entire project outline and resources below.  Of course, we were initially inspired by this fabulous project: Día de los Muertos Calavera Collage from Modern Art 4 Kids. Mrs. Einerwold started things off with the 8th grade students in Spanish creating informational videos about Dia de los Muertos. Students were asked to follow a simple outline to ensure the most factual information about Day of the Dead was presented in their work.

The videos were then viewed by the 4th grade art students as an introduction to their Calaca Collage project. A student example is posted below.

 

The double-sided collage was then started by our 4th grade partners (Mrs. Peroddy's video demo below). See Mrs. Peroddy's introductory blog post here.



Once the 4th graders finished their sides, the artworks were delivered to the middle school where 8th graders began creating the other half. Students were asked to complete a worksheet with the following questions to begin this process. 

You will be choosing a 4^th grade Day of the Dead calaca as the starting point for your artwork. As you look through the artworks, take note (in your brain) what features of the artwork catches your eye.  Then answer: What do you like about it? Why did you choose this artwork? Be specific.

  

Your calaca will be the “big brother” or “big sister” to  the existing one in the work. Your calaca doesn’t have to match the other one exactly, but we should be able to see correlations between the two. You are creating features that enhance what the 4^th grader already did. What features are you going to highlight in your own work? Again, be specific and list at least three ideas (these could be color, pattern, line design, characteristics of features or accessories, etc). How are you going to add your own twist in your addition? How can you build upon what the 4th grader did to create unity in the work?

8th graders were encouraged to use a variety of materials for their collages. Options were colored construction/patterned paper, colored masking tape, Sharpies, glitter glue, squeezable puff paint, metallic sticker paper, sequins and embroidery floss.

Now...for 8th grade progress at this point:

These works will be displayed in our hallways at the end of this week. Please check back for a final view of our Day of the Dead Calaca Collage Collaborations soon!

Day of the Dead Skulls

Since this quarter's art students just wrapped up their exploritory Spanish class, we thought it would be fun to try a Day of the Dead skull drawing. We focused on all three types of balance and contined to work on value shading with colored pencils.