Molas craft {South America unit}

In our two-week unit on South America and Mesoamerica, we read a lot of traditional folktales from those regions and made crafts inspired by tradition handiwork from different countries.  The molas (blouses) of the Kuna women are just gorgeous, and the girls enjoyed making their own versions out of paper..

L chose to read Papagayo by Gerald McDermott (a folktale from the Amazon rainforest).  Here paper mola featured a parrot:

To make her mola, L drew her image on a template and then traced it on different colored construction paper to add depth.

E chose to read The Fisherman and the Turtle by Eric Kimmel.  It's actually a version of the traditional Grimm's story about the fisherman and his wife, but set in Aztec times.

She enhanced her paper mola design with oil pastels.