Rangoli Designs from India

Rangoli

-designs from India-

Rangoli is the art of drawing images and designs on the floor with colored sand, rice, or flour. It is a form of folk art from India and stands as a sign of welcome and thought to bring good luck. The designs are geometric and proportioned. Patterns are made with fingers. They can be any size ranging from the size of a doormat to covering an entire room. Rangoli is designed with the help of dots, which are joined to form a pattern. The pattern is then filled with colors.

In India, this art is temporary. Each design stays only for a day or two, as it is often redone as part of a daily routine. One of the most popular arts among Indian women, rangoli is an age old custom. Designs are passed down through the generations, some of them being hundreds of years old.

Fifth grade students connected Math and Art and created these symmetrical designs inspired by Rangoli images. They were able to use sand to fill their designs.

Romero Britto Pop Art Pyramids

Third graders just learned completed a project that combined Math and Art! We began by looking at the art of Pop artist, Romero Britto, and his Pyramid Project in London.

http://www.pyramidproject.co.uk/overview.php

Students sketched four sides (faces) for their own pyramids, incorporating Egyptian symbols into each side as Britto did in his art. They also combined patterns and either warm or cool colors with black outlines.

Finally, we cut out our pyramid patterns and assembled them. We were able to count and discuss vertices, edges, and faces in our 3D shapes-a concept third grade teachers asked me to incorporate!

Our Favorite Art

A great bulletin board idea is to have children vote on various works of art they have learned about through the year. This is also a good tie in to math and writing. I had Kindergartners write a few sentences about why the artwork was their favorite and draw a picture to accompany their sentences. It was a great one day, cross curricular activity that tied up a lot of loose ends at the end of the year!