Festive, Textural Indian Elephants

The sixth-grade art curriculum includes world cultures and the art-history timeline. This lesson was created as the authors were developing relevant projects. They also presented it at an Ohio Art Education Association fall conference as part of their thematic unit, "Art of the Himalayas." As teachers, they were fascinated by the annual Jaipur Elephant Festival in Rajasthan, India, and thought a related project would be great for their students. Students were intrigued to learn that for millennia, elephants have held an important place in Indian society. Elephants are part of many major religious ceremonies, processions--and even marriage ceremonies. To begin this lesson, the authors shared with students images of Indian elephants decorated for festivals and other events. In this activity, the sixth-grade artists were thrilled to be making festive Indian elephants of their own.