This, hands-down was the most perfectly-timed project of the school year thus far. This is a perfect project for before break – either summer or winter. My students really loved it… I’ve never had so many of them beg to take their artwork home sooner. I also followed it up with weaving for any early finishers. The repetitive nature of gluing the yarn onto the foam board base was very soothing.

Project Description:

We started this unit by researching the effects of culture on artwork, and in turn the effects of art on cultures – specifically looking at the culture and history of the Huichol group from Mexico. Student developed three sketches based on important parts of their cultures. As always, my project requirements were: no copyrighted material, and no words/letters.

Once students had conferenced with me about their ideas, they sketched their final draft of their idea onto a piece of white foam board.  From their, it was all about craftsmanship. Students were taught to outline each shape before filling it in with yarn, then to cut smaller pieces of yarn to fill tiny gaps. We used Elmer’s liquid glue with old acrylic paint brushes of various sizes.

Overall Time: 6 classes – 41 minutes each