December Celebration Painting

To prepare for Christmas break, since that was on everyone's mind anyways, I wanted to research celebrations from different cultures that happen in December. Since my students don't have access to computers, I researched many different cultural and religious celebrations that happen in December. I created a packet that included a summary of that celebration, visual things that represent that celebration, and photographs as reference.

Elements & Principles of Art =  form, shape, and unity

Project Objectives =

•  Students will study celebrations from different cultures around the world.
•  Students will create a sketch to design their art project.
•     Students will create a sculpture that focuses on form, shape, and unity.

Celebration Research

Name of Holiday	Country It Started In	People Who Celebrate It	Main Reason For & Ideas Behind Celebration	Date Celebrated
Hanukkah	Isreal	People of the Jewish religion	Celebrates a miracle that is recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible. It honors the re-dedication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem for Jews. Called the “Festival of Lights” because every day you light a candle	November 27 – December 5
Bodhi Day	China & Japan	People of the Buddhist religion	Also called the “Day of Enlightenment”. A way to celebrate the historical day that Buddha experienced enlightenment.	December 8
Soyal	North America	Hopi and Zuni Native American tribes	The main purpose of the ritual is to ceremonially bring the sun back from its long winter slumber. It also marks the beginning of another cycle of the Wheel of the Year, and is a time for purification.	December 21
Yalda	Iran	People of Iranian (Persian) descent	Celebrates the victory of light and goodness over darkness and evil.	December 21
Pancha Ganapati	India	People of the Hindu religion	Honors the god Ganesha (patron god of the arts and culture).	December 21-25
Yule	Germany & parts of Europe	some Germanic tribes used to	A time of feast and animal sacrifice to honor Odin, other gods, and the king.	December 21-January 1
Christmas (Christian holiday)	Europe & Middle East	People who celebrate the Christian religion	A time to celebrate the birth of Jesus (son of God and the Savior in the Christian religion).	December 25
Christmas or X-mas (commercial holiday)	Europe	People around the world (mostly Europe & North America)	A time of happiness, generosity, and good feelings which usually includes eating food and giving away presents.	December 25
Kwanzaa	Africa	People of African American descent living in North America	Celebration that honors African heritage in African-American culture	December 26-January 1

Steps =

1. Have students choose a celebration to be inspired by (and write it down).
2. Have students create a sketch of what they want their painting to be about (keep in mind that it needs to be inspired by the celebration they choose).
3. On a large piece of paper have students lightly sketch out what they want to paint with a pencil.
4. Go over with the students how to care for a brush, how to protect the tables, and how to mix colors (maybe go over color theory before this project). 
5. Have the students paint the objects on their painting the main color that they want it to be.
6. Have the students paint details on their paper to make objects look more realistic (maybe go over value before this project). Have them paint - look for smooth strokes instead of streaks and that the entire paper is covered.