The Art Room has been full of activity. After completing and displaying our art projects for Unit 1, the students dove right into Unit 2 : Hispanic Heritage Month.
I would like to communicate that I am careful when teaching about a culture that I do not personally belong to and I explain this to all my students. I teach them that we must FIRST educate ourselves on the culture and background of any artwork we are going to study. Without this important step, we risk stealing and appropriating from a culture that is not our own. I am especially careful when I teach a unit shaped by Hispanic culture, as this community represents a large portion of our student body.
Symbols of Mexico:
Kindergarten learned about the origin of the pinata which originally came from China and was discovered there by Marco Polo. Later on, Spanish missionaries that were colonizing and trying to convert the indigenous people of Mexico to Catholicism used the pinata as a spiritual lesson. The pinata was made around a ceramic pot and covered in beautiful wrappings. It was shaped like a star with 9 points. Each point represented one of the 9 deadly sins. The pinata was made to appear beautiful to represent the temptation to sin, while hitting the pinata with a stick showed how we must beat back temptation. When one was able to conquer temptation, the sweets that burst from the pinata represented heavenly rewards. The students used value to color Mexican paper stars to represent the original pinata.
The first graders created dancing puppet Quetzalcoatls. This feathered serpent was a god of the Aztecs who believed the Quetalcoatl was the creator of all mankind who helped them learn to farm, teaching them the skills they needed to survive. Today, on each solstice, the Quetzalcoatl is celebrated and remembered at festivals held at the Great Pyramids in Teotihuacan. It is also featured in some Day of the Dead fiestas. Students used a template to use what they have learned about value to create a movable “dancing” Quetzalcoatl.
In 2nd grade, students learned about the significance of the cactus to the Aztec people and why it is featured as part of the eagle and serpent emblem on the Mexican flag. They learned that when the Aztecs were looking for a place to build their empire, they saw an eagle fly down and catch a snake in its beak. Wherever that eagle landed would be where they built their city. The eagle landed on a cactus and they built their city “Castle Rock” or Tenochtitlan. Second grade created a “stained glass” cactus in chalk pastels, showing off what they have learned about the element of art value both on the cactus and background.
Third grade focused on marigolds. To the Aztecs they were called cempoalxochitl and to the Spanish that colonized later, they were named cempasuchil, or The Flower of The Dead. Marigolds were a sacred flower used as medicine and in many religious ceremonies. Today, they adorn Day of The Dead altars and are believed that their fragrance helps draw the spirits of dead loved ones in. Third grade practiced radial symmetry to create their line drawings of marigolds before applying their knowledge of value with colored pencils and a watercolor wash.We used a more “popcorn” bloom marigold, as creating petals around radial symmetry was challenging all on its own. It would have been more complicated to create the traditional “wavy” petals that resemble a carnation.
Fourth grade also featured a flower. The Dahlia is the national flower of Mexico. Like the marigolds, they played a large part in mesoamerican life. They were used as food and medicine, as well as ornaments of beauty on women, human sacrifices, and the helmets of the Axtec warriors. Originally, the flowers grew in the mountainous regions of Mexico and Guatemala before the Spanish sent the flowers back to Europe. The flower became a national symbol in 1963. Like the 3rd grade, students used radial cemetery to create their flower and used their knowledge of value to create depth before applying a watercolor wash.
Fifth grade featured the agave plant. The agave is an important plant in Mexican culture for a lot of reasons, but some of the lesser known reasons is that the Aztecs saw it as a symbol of abundance and good health. Not only was it a source for joy-making ritual drink that filled the Aztecs with dance, but it was used as medicine and food. The plant was used as woven fibers to create clothing, baskets, rope, and netting. The thorns on the agave plant were turned into needles, while the worms that ate the agave leaves were also consumed due to their highly nutritious properties. The students created oil pastel agave plants using their knowledge of value and mounted the on tissue paper transfer backgrounds.
We hope you’re able to see our artwork in the hallways. If not, it will be featured at the end-of-the-year art walk.
And if you’re curious, only one single 5th grader recognized the agave plant as the “plant that makes that one drink.” Finding a way to explain that this plant helped the Aztecs dance with joy was difficult, but I succeeded. Thank Quetzalcoatl!
In all seriousness, this unit was a joy to teach. I loved seeing their faces light up with excitement and curiosity. It is important that we all learn our own histories. I am excited to walk them through more of that history with creativity, empathy, respect, and pride.
FUN FRIDAY ART:
We have completed portraits of the school resource officers, mayor, and new employees at Suncrest Elementary. We have also completed our first illustration for our Songbook: The Yellow Submarine. You’re welcome if your student sang that to you on repeat for days on end.
