Wang Yani - Chinese Brush Painting

This is an old favorite of a lesson.  I got it either from School Arts or Arts and Activities twenty some years ago.

I used to do it with kindergarten, but this year it seemed to fall flat with them.  Since both grades did Chinese Dragon puppets last time, I continued the Chinese theme with both grades as well.

I showed a PowerPoint to my students, that had photos of Wang Yani as a little girl/artist.  It included photos of many of her monkey paintings.  Then we looked at a short YouTube video of her.

I led them through the steps of painting with a bamboo brush and painting a monkey.  Then I let them paint another picture of their choice of animals.

    

Chinese Dragon and Lion Puppets

I love teaching about Chinese New Year.  My school has some ancient VCR tapes called Holidays for Children that we watch for lesson inspiration.  One is just on Chinese New Year.  It tells the origins of the holiday and how the holiday is celebrated.  This includes info on dragons and lion dance costumes.

I came up with a lesson this year that I have not done before.

Modeled after a Chinese lion head puppet that I have, this kindergarten and first grade lesson uses a stuffed paper bag for the head.  These are just the beginnings.  I'll post again after more are complete.

This is the piece that gave me the idea for this lesson.  It is a papier mache lion puppet.  There is a cloth in the back that you can drape over your arm so it looks like the lion costume.