West African Mud Cloths

For the next two weeks, Jordan from Shidaa, a West African drumming and dancing troupe, is our artist-in-residence at Fayston School.  Students will work with Jordan to learn about his home country, Ghana, and practice drumming, dancing, printmaking and storytelling.  

First and second grade artists are learning about Mud Cloths, a type of printed fabric made in Mali and other West African countries.  We used this interactive site from the Smithsonian to create our own virtual mud cloths and inspire our own painted mud cloths.  

Mud Cloth from Mali

Our mud cloths 

Day of the Dead Sugar Skulls

The Day of the Dead is NOT "Mexican Halloween," even though these two holidays fall on similar dates.  It is a time for remembering and celebrating loved ones who have passed.  Click here to read more about the Days of the Dead.  

One tradition during this holiday is to display carefully decorated sugar skulls.  First and second graders looked at many examples of these sugar skulls then created their own.  

Spooky Spiderwebs with Glue and Chalk Pastel

Kindergarten Photo Project

Kindergarten artists shared the photos that they edited and looked for similarities and differences between their original photos and the edited versions.

Peter Max... Color and Creativity!

Kindergarten Photography Project

Kindergartners used our new iPads to take pictures around our school.  They used viewfinders to scout out their shots.  We looked for examples of patterns and textures, close up and far away objects and looking up and looking down.