Chinese Lanterns

In honor of Chinese New Year last month, I thought this lesson from Art Stars would make a great project for my K-5th graders. As Amy describes in her post, the children started their lanterns by drawing "squashed circles". I encouraged them to overlap some lanterns and have some go off the page to create an interesting composition. They used oil pastels to add color and patterns and then painted the background with watercolor. Once dry, they used the backs of their painted brushes dipped in white acrylic to create strands of white lights. I told them to imagine their backyards decorated for a party with colorful lanterns and strands of draping lights.