Kimonos

After reading Mulan,  in our Houghton Mifflan California anthology, my class looked at many examples of kimonos & discussed common motifs:  Flowers, leaves, trees, birds, butterflies, fish, waves, mountains....

Source: bi.polar.sewer

 Using graph paper, I made an outline of a kimono for each child to design & color using colored pencils.  This was pretty simple to do since Kimonos are made from lots of straight lines. The main part of the garment looks like a capital "T".  I then xeroxed it on "light" so that the graph paper lines disappeared.
Some coloring projects fall flat with kids rushing to finish.  This one caught their fancy, and they worked hard to create colorful, unique designs.  Boys seemed to like this project as much as girls.  Girls like fashion design, and boys relate to the kimonos they have seen in karate class or in movies or videos.