Second Grade Kimono Portraits

As the second lesson in my Japanese art unit, we do a an exercise in gratitude: for this project, students are given the opportunity to do portraits of teachers, para-educators, janitors, and other adults in the school that they are grateful for…as long as they are in a kimono!

A slide from my presentation.

It is impossible to talk about the history of Japan without discussing the kimono. Students learn that while kimonos used to be worn every day a long, long time ago, now they are only worn for special occasions. Second-graders do a pretty good job of coming up with examples for the definition: weddings birthdays, holidays, and festivals or parties. As a class, we look at the differences in color between male and female kimonos, and finally, we talk about the element of pattern! At this age, we define pattern as “something that repeats”–lines, shapes, and colors can all repeat to make a pattern.

Colors and patters found on modern kimonos.

Finally, after learning about the parts of the kimono (including the obi and the geta), we start making our kimono portraits!

After tracing some templates I made, students start drawing their portraits and coloring their patterns. All it takes after that is a little assembly with glue and paper, and our kimono portraits are finished!

This lesson is partially inspired by Cassie Stevens’ kimono lesson, although taught and presented differently. The lesson plan, standards, and step-by-step instructions can be found here, my Google Slides presentation here, and the previous lesson in this unit can be found here or at the bottom of the page. Thank you for reading!