Paper Mask Sculptures with 2nd Grade

3 Day Lesson, Collage and Sculpture

This is an annual 2nd grade sculpture project. They have a lot fun creating these very creative masks and this year might be some of the best!

Day One is building the face, chin and nose. We fold 9x18 paper in half and cut out a large semi-circle. We build a 3D chin and nose that sticks out from the face.  (I’ll have to find some pictures of those steps…)

 

Day Two is adding the features of the face. I have a 3 layer minimum for the eyes and we discuss contrast. So often kids will layer orange on orange on orange…ugh.

 

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Here’s my examples and I demonstrate how to make 3D eye lashes/eye lids.

 

Day Three is HAIR DAY! This year I got smart and laid out strips of paper. I used to have them work with chunks, but this is WAY BETTER! They have to style each piece of hair and not only does it take a whole class period, but the hair looks amazing and full.

I demo how to glue the hair to the back of the mask cascading over the forehead for a more natural effect.

We do all kinds of paper sculpture techniques to add volume to the hair. I’ll have to post my “poster” for hair styles.

(Hallway displays)

I use EZ clips to hang all my art that won’t fit on the racks in the hallway. Tape will not stick to our walls and hot gluing is strongly discouraged. The EZ clips are awesome! I think I buy them from Blick?

Pysanky Eggs

I decided to do something somewhat “eastery” for the Thursday before Good Friday. I decided to try Pysanky Eggs with Kindergarten. They did a great job!

We read the story “Rechenka’s Eggs”  by Patricia Polacco. There are a lot of fun Russian names in this story that the kids enjoyed hearing. I hope I was pronouncing them correctly.

The book was about an old Russian lady who makes amazing designs on eggs for the big festival and stumbles upon a wounded bird that she takes in when something magical happens.

To really make this fun, I let the kids decorate a plastic egg with their designs in sharpie. We rolled up a little piece of paper with information about Pysanky Eggs and stuffed them inside.