Inuit inspired masks, 5th Grade

These are Awesome!!!

I was specifically asked by one of the fifth grade teachers to create a lesson on Inuit masks, since he was going to begin a unit on the Inuit culture. This is what I came up with.

These are entirely made out of paper. I stressed the importance of symmetry and layering in this lesson. We viewed examples of Inuit masks and I showed them how many Inuit masks were decorated with simple shapes like ovals, squares, circles, rectangles, etc.

To make symmetry easier, I had students cut through two pieces of paper at once. This way they end up with two identical images. When students were finished, some stapled raffia on to the mask for hair.