This is a project I do every year to support the learning of the Grade 3's regular classroom teacher. They study India in Social Studies so I do a big "Art of India" unit each year with them. This year I did henna hands again, but was inspired by a student to add the lacing around the border. He did it once during class when he had some free time, so I thought it would look nice as a border to their finished henna hands.
Students watched a video of an Indian woman applying mendhi for a wedding. Then we looked more specifically at the types of patterns and designs used. They were given a hand template to trace (I've had kids trace their own hands before but because this age can have such small hands, there wasn't much space for them to draw their designs! So now I give them a photocopy of a large outline of a hand. They cut this out (harder than it seems for some of them!) and use this as a template. Then they trace it onto some brown construction paper (I order specifically multicultural/skin coloured construction paper for this). Once drawn, they draw their designs directly using a fine tip brown marker. Then they cut them out and glue stick them to fuchsia/purple construction paper.
For the border, they used a single hole punch to punch holes around the edges. Then they used yarn to lace all through the holes. They really enjoyed this part!
