It's a Papel Amate Party!

This is one of my tried-and-true lessons that I got from . . . somewhere (but I can't for the life of me remember where). It's part of my Mexican Crafts unit that I do with fourth grade.  We talk about and view examples of Oaxaca, Molas, Papel Amate and Mexican tinwork.  Papel Amate are celebration paintings created on paper from the bark of the amate tree.  They're very colorful and are surrounded by painted borders.  I give each student 18" x 18" brown craft paper to make theirs on:

An "in process" birthday celebration papel amate.

We start out using rulers to lay out a double border, then add our drawings with pencil:

Birthday parties are a popular theme!

We then trace with Sharpie:

Disco!

A beach party.

And finally, paint with block tempera (we used the Biggie Cakes):

A food wedding.

A day at the amusement park.

We have much more painting to do to be finished, and it seems to be taking forever due to field trips, assemblies and the like.  But they'll be great when they're done!