African Art

Once a month or so, our 3 kindergartens get together and do a collaborative project. This month the children learned about African art. We made masks, rain sticks, and Adinkra cloth. It was totally messy and of course, deliciously fun! Here are some pictures of their projects... These are the masks.


This is the Adinkra cloth. We did not print on cloth, though. We used white paper.






Here are a couple pictures of the rain stick. I wanted to get more pictures, but the kids were so excited to bring them home, I didn't get the chance!
To make the rain stick, use a paper towel tube. Insert a piece of card stock into the paper towel tube. Students make "grass" cuts along both sides and fold every other section.
Students decorate a 9" x 6" piece of earth colored construction paper with African designs. We just googled "African designs", printed off the ones we wanted, and glued onto a brown piece of paper. Here is a picture, but the glare from the laminating makes it a little hard on the eyes!









After the children decorated their paper, we wound it around the paper towel tube and secured with tape. Then we took a square of African fabric and wrapped it around one end and secured with a rubber band. The next step was to fill with the "rain." We used black beans and small plastic beads.
After filling, the other end was secured with a square of felt and secured with a rubber band. One IMPORTANT step - Make sure that you put some Elmer's glue on the ends of the paper towel tube BEFORE you add the fabric squares! This will ensure that the "rain" doesn't fall out as it is being shaken and shaken and shaken and shaken....... :)

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