Many of my 3rd graders finished up their Day of the Dead skulls this week! They came out great!!
It was a little tricky photographing them being so reflective!
To create them, I first prepared all the kids sheets with tinfoil. I laid a sheet (shinier side facing down) on the table. Then glued a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ heavyweight tagboard with a glue stick all over with a thin coat of glue. It’s important to not have any globs of glue here so it won’t show on the tinfoil as bumps.
Then I flipped the tagboard over -putting the glue side down, and smoothed it all over with my hands. Then I glued the edges of each side of tinfoil. Then folded the edges onto it.
So that all four sides of extra tinfoil are glued and folded onto the tag.
Then flip it over to the tinfoil side.
I found 3 different images of skulls online and printed them out so the images were printed lighter (a grey outline rather than black). Students then chose an image and taped it to the tinfoiled tagboard with 1 piece of painters tape along the top.
Students then traced the image, pressing firmly with a dull pencil, to transfer the image.
Students LOVED this and were amazed when they saw their lines transfer to the tinfoil!
This tracing step took most of the 40 minute art class. Once finished tracing, students then colored in their image using colored sharpies.
The sharpies take about 20 seconds to dry, so be careful while coloring so you don’t smudge.
Students learned that Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday and festival held from October 31st – November 2nd to remember and honor friends and family members who have died and is celebrated throughout Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage living in the United States.
My third graders LOVED this lesson and thought it was a lot of fun!
This lesson also ties in nicely to our NEXT lesson -(studying the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and creating self-portraits with personal symbols inspired by her work using oil pastels! (you can view previous 3rd graders self-portrait artwork under the menu and scroll down!)
Next blog post later Saturday 10/28 on 2nd grade abstract self-portraits! One of my absolute favorite art lessons!!! Click under 2nd grade art lessons under the menu, and scroll down to view last year’s artwork!
Stay tuned!…