Amate or Bark Paintings by 3rd Graders

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, 3rd graders made a version of a traditional Mexican craft: Amate or Bark Paintings. 
Amate paintings come from the state of Guerrero where artisans paint scenes of everyday life, as well as fantastic birds and other animals.  We compared three different real amate paintings to discover their similarities and list them. We then designed our paintings based upon our list.
The real amate paper is made from the bark of mulberry or fig trees.  We used paper bags which were crumpled and then ironed between 2 sheets of wax paper so that the bag would look more like bark. 
Students followed the rubric below to make sure that their painting was truly in the style of real, Mexican, bark paintings.

Click on the student examples below to see larger versions.

Amate Bark Painting Rubric 
1.  Your animal(s) is (are) the largest shape in the painting.
2.  There is a blank border framing the painted part of the artwork.
3.  The border is an equal size all the way around.
4.  Inside the border there is no blank space larger than a thumb print.
5.  The animal is surrounded by plants and flowers and lines.
6.  The artwork is carefully painted:

Each shape is completely painted.
Black outlines are showing.
Most colors used in the painting have been mixed.
Neon colors have an under-painting of white paint.
The background is not painted, just the drawn shapes.