Dream Catchers

This has been one of the most successful, fun, and easy projects I have ever done with 5th grade! I cannot wait to post the rest at the end of the week after they paint them!! This looks hard but its very easy!! 

You can youtube the history of the dreamcatcher before you start

We are combining radial designs in the form of a dream catcher.

The bad dreams get trapped in the web and the good dreams pass through. 

begin with 6-8 circles using a compass

add a symbol or simple design in each circle. Four beads or gemstones can be woven in to represent the 4 directions; North South East and West

You can make up designs or use symbols that represent you like the first letter of your last name, your zodiac sign, a flower petal, a christian fish, a favorite shape, or even a quote or meaningful word.

Then just repeat the symbol all the way around the circle. you will begin to see new shapes and when parts are filled in, other parts stand out more.

For the feathers you have to look at real feathers and images of feathers. Owl feathers represent wisdom and eagle feathers represent courage.

Begin with a pencil outline of the shape of the feather. The bottom of the feather has downy fuzz and the tip can be round or tapered. 

 then draw small separations angled upwards towards the tip. If they dont sketch the shape first, their feathers will look like Christmas trees.

then outiline with sharpie and erase the pencil line in front of the little separations in the feather.

Encourage kids to draw LARGE feathers and even overlap them

 They can add embellishments too

Add details with construction paper crayons, but dont color in the whole thing. Limit your color pallet to 2-4 colors

Run water over the whole drawing in the sink until completely wet

 Then use liquid watercolor and a large flat brush to drop on color in large sections and drip to blend until completely covered....no mud!

Then add salt