Watercolor Dragons

Students in grades 4-6 created these vibrantly colored dragons to celebrate the Chinese New Year! We started by learning about Chinese New Year- the traditions, why each year is named after an animal and how people celebrate the holiday. Next, students looked at different examples of dragons and began sketching a dragon face. We chose the best sketch to draw large- folding the paper in half to only draw half of the face. The drawing was then traced with black crayon and rubbed off onto the other side to create a perfectly symmetrical dragon. For the painting, students could use any combination of colors they wanted as long as they kept the symmetry. Students loved the results especially because dragons are our school mascots!

Terracotta Warriors

The Terracotta warriors were created around 200 BC by Emperor Qin, the first emperor of China. He had over 7,000 warriors created out of clay to protect his tomb. Amazingly, these soldiers weren't discovered until the 1970's! Students in grades 4-6 drew and carved these soldiers into Styrofoam and then printed them with metallic paint. These were then mounted side-by-side to create our own little armies! This is a great printmaking lesson that incorporates the art principle rhythm/repetition.

Chinese Dragons

International Academy students are focusing their study on the culture of China this semester. We learned about the various types of dragons drawn in Asian culture and those specifically in China. Students created their own dragon and incorporated many different line patterns within the dragon's body. These were then transferred onto a larger paper four times in a symmetrical way. We colored the dragons with marker and used a watercolor wash to fill in the background. These are especially great because our school mascot is a dragon!