Last batch of face jugs...

Just had to share a few more - they really turned out great and I can't help bragging on my 5th graders.  This lesson has been a 5th grade tradition in my classroom for many years, and I think what made them so unique this year was showing them the history video - you can find it in the original posts with more info here and here.

Kente Weaving and Anansi the Spider: 1st grade



The mischievous and wise Anansi

 First graders have begun their unit on African art


Royal kente, pic from Smithsonian

 with an African folklore tale of Anansi the Spider, a spider who seems to know everything and loves to play the trickster.  The book in the picture has great illustrations, but it does not tell the kente story - that is a different Anansi book that I don't own... yet! The story can be found online here.  An old Ashanti story tells the origins of weaving - two brothers set out on a hunting trip and are amazed at a beautiful spider web in the wilderness, of course woven by Anansi, who teaches the brothers how to weave and they in turn teach their community. Kente cloths were first woven only for royalty, but are now available for everyone to wear. They are often woven with the colors of their flag.                                                       
When beginning this unit, I asked students what they already knew about Africa, and most shared answers about the beautiful wild animals who live there.  To celebrate this, we included some animal print paper strips - thanks to Artolazzi  for the idea, it really added a nice layer of interest and texture.  After weaving, we illustrated our paper kente with an illustration of Anansi, happily dangling from our woven cloths.

5th grade Face Jugs, Part 2

Our glaze firings are almost complete and we have some incredible face jugs to show off.  I tried a new brand of glaze this year - Blick brand - and I would like to recommend it highly - a great value!  To see the post of the earlier stages of this lesson, along with some face jug history and inspiration, click here.