African Scratch Art

African Scratch Art 

I started off the lesson by playing the YouTube video on the book Anansi the Spider. It gives a brief explanation of the Akan people (which is present day Ghana) and tells an Ashanti folktale.

 I love the beautiful illustrations by Gerald McDermontt. I stopped the video periodically to point out the patterns in the illustrations. 

Each student received an 8" x 11" scratch art sheet by Melissa and Doug (It comes in packs of 30) and a wooden stylus. You can use a dull pencil if you don't have any styluses.  

I showed the students this page which was our inspiration for our art project.I provided each student with a pattern of a fish for them to trace onto the scratch art paper using the stylus. I know I don't like patterns either, but for this age it helps them to use the whole paper. This is August so they have just   became 1st graders. 

The next step was to draw an eye, scratch off the black and make the outside lines bigger as well as dividing their fish into parts. This part of the lesson took 50 minutes. Before starting they were instructed to write their name and teacher code in the corner. 

On the next class we reviewed what patterns were as well as various lines. Students were instructed to complete their fish with patterns. They were reminded to scratch away all the black to reveal the beautiful rainbow colors underneath. 

Students really enjoyed this lesson. They loved seeing their fish hanging in the windows in the school hallway.