2nd Grade Aboriginal Art

I love teaching about Aboriginal art, the culture, history and mythology of the Aboriginal people is so fascinating and it always seems to inspire the students. In this lesson I taught a few key concepts over the course of about 5 40-minute periods, these include:

- Use of warm colors

- Many animals were depicted as a sort of x-ray, with colors and shapes filling the bodies

- Aborigines live in the outback, a rural area sepearted by a lot of land from the larger cities

- A good way to remember that the Aborigines were the first people to inhabit Australia is the word original, which can be found when you take away the a and b.

- Use of dots to help add texture to their work

- Use of symbols to tell a visual story

- The 'dreaming' is an Aboriginal creation story, and each tribe has their own dreamings

- Due to Australia's geographical location Aboriginal art is very unique has many of its own separate qualities and characteristics.  

The students work had to meet the following criteria for completion: Each piece had to have an x-ray style animal filled with shapes and colored in.  2 or more symbols which could have been ones we discussed and viewed in class or ones they had thought up on their own.  A path (to help depict a journey). Dots painted in a controlled, organized manner and everything except the dots had to be outlined in Sharpie to help keep the edges clean. We used crayola construction paper crayons which I liked a lot, the colors only come out a little bit brighter, but overall the effect is worth it.