Art Project with 5th and 6th grade

Last year when I cane to Ghana for the first time, I wasn’t prepared with supplies to teach at the school because I didn’t know what to expect, and so consequently didn’t know what to bring. Of course, this year, I knew what to expect and so had time to plan and prepare. I thought it would be cool to bring the supplies to do an art project based on the cloth paintings of the Senufo people in West Africa. My class had just completed this art project at the end of the school year, so it was fresh in my mind and I was excited to share it across cultures. The project is done on untreated canvas with sharpie marker and a diluted tempra wash. I ran the idea by the teaching staff, and they were very excited about it. We decided on a “celebration of Ghana” theme, focusing on plants and animals (all the kids ended up choosing animals…)

Step one was tracing and/or drawing the animal and designing patterns within. Step two included transferring the design onto the canvas with sharpie, and the last step is adding the wash around the animal. The finished products will be hung in the new kindergarten building. The 5^th and 6^th graders were very excited about their first-ever-art-project!