African Archives - Art is Basic | Elementary Art Ideas

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Animal Cloth Paintings inspired by Korhogo Cloths

By Marcia Beckett | December 15, 2016 - 6:19 pm |February 2, 2025 African, animals, painting, third grade

Colorful drawing of a purple, winged unicorn with a rainbow background and diamond-shaped decorations.

My 3rd grade classes learned about African Korhogo Cloth paintings. They had been studying Africa in their Social Studies class. Here are some of the resources we used: information about the cloth paintings and a couple of YouTube videos– Take a Look at African Korhogo Cloth and Senufo Art (although I do caution you that there is some nudity at the beginning of this documentary in the intro, so start it after 20 seconds in). There is a really cool tribal dance portion … Read more… →

Triangle Collage on Canvas for School Auction

By Marcia Beckett | February 19, 2015 - 3:05 pm |July 5, 2024 African, collage, fifth grade, group artwork, printmaking, sixth grade

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Triangle Collage on Canvas for School Auction

Every year, my 5th/6th grade class carves rubber stamps with symbols they have designed. This year, we stamped extra prints on tissue paper with acrylic paint to make collaborative artworks. To stamp, simply use a foam brush to lightly paint acrylic paint on the stamp. Then, the tissue papers were decoupaged (with hard-finish Mod-Podge) on these fun triangular canvases called Squangles. These are going to be put in our school auction at the end of the year. We made three … Read more… →

Painting on Cloth | 3rd Grade

By Marcia Beckett | August 20, 2014 - 11:12 am |July 5, 2024 African, fabric, painting, third grade, watercolor

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A bird with a colorful, patterned body pecks at the ground near a small tree with a decorative red border, resembling a vibrant painting on cloth.

Painting on cloth gives such nice, soft colors and is a challenging change from painting on paper. We tied our lesson into African Korhogo cloth painting and you can read about this project in previous posts here. We used unbleached muslin cloth and regular watercolor paints (Crayola or Prang.) The kids drew their design on paper first, then put the paper under the muslin. You can see the lines through the cloth. Then, they traced the design onto the muslin … Read more… →

Hello from the Art Room

By Marcia Beckett | February 9, 2014 - 8:37 pm |July 5, 2024 African, masks

African Adinkra Carved Stamps & Art for AUCTION– 5th and 6th grade

By Marcia Beckett | April 2, 2013 - 11:46 pm |July 5, 2024 African, collaborative artwork, fifth grade, group artwork, printmaking, sixth grade

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A pattern of hand-stamped yellow symbols, including eyes, paws, and triangles arranged on a white background using Carved Stamps.

My 5th and 6th grade students studied Africa and the African Adinkra stamped cloths. I showed them a slide show of images. Examples of Adinkra symbols were shown for inspiration. Check out my African Adinkra Pinterest board for handouts of symbols. The kids could use these ideas and embellish upon them or come up with their own symbol based on some of these ideas. They used linoleum cutters to carve their own rubber stamps on the Dick Blick Art soft carving … Read more… →

Studying African Masks: 3rd Grade

By Marcia Beckett | February 28, 2013 - 6:14 am |July 5, 2024 African, drawing, masks, third grade

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Colorful, abstract face drawing with geometric shapes and patterns, featuring a big head, prominent eyebrows, and dots. The design is inspired by African masks.

The 3rd graders studied Africa in their social studies classroom and we learned about African masks in art class. The students watched a video that explained about the functions of masks, celebrations, rituals and materials used to make the masks. (Crizmac Tribal Designs video) Using markers, the third graders drew their own masks. The students were encouraged to include human and/or animal features and to personalize the masks with colors and designs of their own choosing. When we made … Read more… →

African Cloth Painting– 3rd Grade

By Marcia Beckett | November 29, 2012 - 4:00 am |July 5, 2024 African, painting, third grade

African Adinkra Stamps

By Marcia Beckett | February 6, 2012 - 5:19 pm |July 5, 2024 African, fifth grade, printmaking, sixth grade

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Abstract pattern of brushstroke asterisks in green, brown, blue, and black, arranged like Adinkra stamps in a grid on a white background.

The 5th/6th grade class has been carving stamps from soft cut blocks. They used acrylic paints to print their stamps on muslin cloth! The students read about the African Adinkra symbol stamps and created their own symbol.

Painted Korhogo Cloths– 3rd Grade

By Marcia Beckett | January 2, 2012 - 5:03 pm |July 5, 2024 African, painting, third grade

Clay African Masks– 3rd grade

By Marcia Beckett | February 26, 2011 - 3:26 pm |July 5, 2024 African, clay, masks, third grade

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A colorful abstract face made from clay, featuring various shapes and textures on a white background, inspired by traditional Clay African Masks.

For this project, we drew African masks and then constructed them from slabs of clay. These were painted with acrylic paints and then sprayed with varnish.