A friend and I alternate teaching a once-a-month art class to 10
homeschool children ages 8 - 12 (funny thing - this is only 3 families, including my
own). This month I thought it would be fun to do something
spook-inspired in honor of Halloween, but I feel like we've done so much
traditional Halloween art that I thought investigating a different culture might be fun. As such, I searched around and found a very
cool project over at
Dick Blick
-
Day of the Dead Triptychs. I knew that in the time given there was
no way the kids would be able to complete all three panels. My goal was
that they each fully complete one panel, hopefully two - and they did. In
the two hours allotted, each child was able to complete a completely
metal-and-paint panel and one with a paper maché skull. We were also
able to incorporate a quick Day of the Dead lesson (though shamefully I
forgot my laptop on which I'd created, if I do say so myself, a pretty
awesome power point presentation that included many pictures of
beautiful DoD artwork) and a snack of
pan de los muertos, baked (and completely veganized) by my
friend. I combined my children's creations to make triptychs (and one bi-panel) and we're using these to decorate our home.
If you want to give these a go you should know that the panels were fairly inexpensive, though mostly because I bought in bulk (just don't tell my husband!) to bring the cost down and used paint & tools I already owned. I figured it cost approximately $1.50 per panel, maybe a little more but close enough. If you don't buy in bulk the cost will probably at least double. And if you don't have metal embossing tools you'll either need to buy them or go without. The kids actually used the blunt end of paintbrushes to do most of the work, but I also have some tools (a crimper, stampers, etc.) that they were able to work with.
A friend and I alternate teaching a once-a-month art class to 10
homeschool children ages 8 - 12 (funny thing - this is only 3 families, including my
own). This month I thought it would be fun to do something
spook-inspired in honor of Halloween, but I feel like we've done so much
traditional Halloween art that I thought investigating a different culture might be fun. As such, I searched around and found a very
cool project over at Dick Blick
- Day of the Dead Triptychs. I knew that in the time given there was
no way the kids would be able to complete all three panels. My goal was
that they each fully complete one panel, hopefully two - and they did. In
the two hours allotted, each child was able to complete a completely
metal-and-paint panel and one with a paper maché skull. We were also
able to incorporate a quick Day of the Dead lesson (though shamefully I
forgot my laptop on which I'd created, if I do say so myself, a pretty
awesome power point presentation that included many pictures of
beautiful DoD artwork) and a snack of pan de los muertos, baked (and completely veganized) by my friend. I combined my children's creations to make triptychs (and one bi-panel) and we're using these to decorate our home.
If you want to give these a go you should know that the panels were fairly inexpensive, though mostly because I bought in bulk (just don't tell my husband!) to bring the cost down and used paint & tools I already owned. I figured it cost approximately $1.50 per panel, maybe a little more but close enough. If you don't buy in bulk the cost will probably at least double. And if you don't have metal embossing tools you'll either need to buy them or go without. The kids actually used the blunt end of paintbrushes to do most of the work, but I also have some tools (a crimper, stampers, etc.) that they were able to work with.
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