Aloha!

In today's art class, we were taught how to make a Hawaiian lei out of yarn, construction paper, watercolored paper, and straws. First, we painted a white sheet of drawing paper with two different watercolor techniques. I chose to use the dry brush technique and the crayon resist technique. While our paintings dried, we traced flowers onto the construction paper and cut them out. When the painting was dry, we traced four flowers onto that paper and cut them out. Each flower got a hole punch through the middle of it so the yarn could go through. We fed the yarn through the flowers and straw pieces alternating each piece to create the lei. After we were finished, we wrote down who we were going to give the lei to out of respect or love, just as the Hawaiians do.

As an extension activity, students could study the history of leis on the Hawaiian Islands and then present information to the class about each island.