Carnival Masks

First Grade students studied Carnaval celebrations from around the world.  Using the smartboard we viewed people celebrating this festival season that comes right before the holiday of lent.  Students compared the celebrations of three places- Venice, Rio de Janeiro, and New Orleans.  Although the different places have their own unique ways of celebrating- one thing they had in common was dressing up in costumes and masks.  During Carnaval people usually act differently than they would in their everyday lives.  A mask helps to hide their identity as they celebrate. 

 

After discussing Carnaval and viewing various examples of masks students were ready to create their own.  The first challenge was to design a mask that has symmetry.  Once they created their symmetrical mask out of practice paper it was carefully traced onto tag board and cut out.  Student then embellished their mask with a piece of model magic that they rolled and glued to their work (also in a symmetrical design) .  Students used watercolors to add a color to their mask and further decorated it with patterns and symmetry.