I am a teacher in New York. We are trying to put together a "Dominican Day" in our school later this year to celebrate the heritage of a number of our students. I was curious as to whether or not there is a simple "Dominican craft" that third grade students (ages 8 and 9) would be able to create in roughly 45 minutes time. I would greatly appreciate any help in this matter. Thank you.
- Thread starter wogteacher
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Dominican Crafts?
The two most famous "Crafts" for Dominican men are irratic driving & drinking Rum & Cervesas! As you probably don't want either of those as student participation for the 'Heritage Day', perhaps you can check on internet re 'Faceless Dolls' & 'Dominican Republic Musical instruments'. There is a fairly unique 'cheese grater' they use here for their merengue music & the old bongos get a fair pounding too!!
I am sure several Dominican posters will come up with far better ideas, but these are starters for you!! ~ Grahame.
I am sure several Dominican posters will come up with far better ideas, but these are starters for you!! ~ Grahame.
Thank you!
Thanks so much!
BushBaby said:The two most famous "Crafts" for Dominican men are irratic driving & drinking Rum & Cervesas! As you probably don't want either of those as student participation for the 'Heritage Day', perhaps you can check on internet re 'Faceless Dolls' & 'Dominican Republic Musical instruments'. There is a fairly unique 'cheese grater' they use here for their merengue music & the old bongos get a fair pounding too!!
I am sure several Dominican posters will come up with far better ideas, but these are starters for you!! ~ Grahame.
Thanks so much!
wogteacher said:Thanks so much!
Hi wogteacher,
I'm Dominican and I'm also a teacher... I'll look around and see what I can come up with if you want. made some thing to celebrate the Dominican Independes Day. The only proble is that the kids are preschoolers, but I have some ideas.
BushBaby said:The two most famous "Crafts" for Dominican men are irratic driving & drinking Rum & Cervesas! As you probably don't want either of those as student participation for the 'Heritage Day', perhaps you can check on internet re 'Faceless Dolls' & 'Dominican Republic Musical instruments'. There is a fairly unique 'cheese grater' they use here for their merengue music & the old bongos get a fair pounding too!!
I am sure several Dominican posters will come up with far better ideas, but these are starters for you!! ~ Grahame.
That's a little too harsh don't you think?
There are quite a lot of clay pots (with a reddish clay) that I've seen made. Possibly you can work something around this, with painting the pots. They look quite nice after they're painted. I have not seen the firing process but it seems to be quite rough work. I really like the pots however.
Some years ago in the US, we bought a very small pottery set (I think at toys'rus) for our daughter. The red pots that they make here reminded me a lot of this small pottery set. Anyway, I don't think you can go wrong with a 'pottery' class. There are certainly about 20 of these small 'factories' on the way between Santiago and Santo Domingo.
Also, something that I've seen here are very rough baskets made of twigs - when the twigs are still pliable, the baskets are woven. I miss good craft in the DR, yet, over Chrismas, the animals and nativity scenes made of hay, are quite attractive. A bunch of hay, some chicken wire, someone with a creative eye for nativity scenes and hey presto, you have a Chrismas decoration.
Possibly these ideas may be helpful to you.
Some years ago in the US, we bought a very small pottery set (I think at toys'rus) for our daughter. The red pots that they make here reminded me a lot of this small pottery set. Anyway, I don't think you can go wrong with a 'pottery' class. There are certainly about 20 of these small 'factories' on the way between Santiago and Santo Domingo.
Also, something that I've seen here are very rough baskets made of twigs - when the twigs are still pliable, the baskets are woven. I miss good craft in the DR, yet, over Chrismas, the animals and nativity scenes made of hay, are quite attractive. A bunch of hay, some chicken wire, someone with a creative eye for nativity scenes and hey presto, you have a Chrismas decoration.
Possibly these ideas may be helpful to you.
Chris said:There are quite a lot of clay pots (with a reddish clay) that I've seen made. Possibly you can work something around this, with painting the pots. They look quite nice after they're painted. I have not seen the firing process but it seems to be quite rough work. I really like the pots however.
Some years ago in the US, we bought a very small pottery set (I think at toys'rus) for our daughter. The red pots that they make here reminded me a lot of this small pottery set. Anyway, I don't think you can go wrong with a 'pottery' class. There are certainly about 20 of these small 'factories' on the way between Santiago and Santo Domingo.
Also, something that I've seen here are very rough baskets made of twigs - when the twigs are still pliable, the baskets are woven. I miss good craft in the DR, yet, over Chrismas, the animals and nativity scenes made of hay, are quite attractive. A bunch of hay, some chicken wire, someone with a creative eye for nativity scenes and hey presto, you have a Chrismas decoration.
Possibly these ideas may be helpful to you.
Every culture has it's strong and weak points. The primary mode of artistic expression in the DR seems to be music and dance. Most of the more visual art work I've seen there (paintings, sculpture and such) was Haitian. I've only visited as a tourist however, so I hope to be enlightened on this aspect of the DR.
Quisqueyana32 said:That's a little too harsh don't you think?
No, not really Quisqueyana32. My comment re driving & alcohol might appear harsh to those who don't have a sense of humour, but most people on this board have got used to my weird 'British' sense of humour after 6 years of posting here & allow me my little idiosyncracies now & then!!
The opening sentance was meant as a jest to open up for what was to follow. The comment re 'Faceless Dolls' was realistic & the comment re 'Cheese grater' & Bongos was just to cover up my inefficiencies at knowing the FULL & CORRECT names for these musical instruments!! ~ Grahame.
I do have a sense of humor...
Point taken. Since I'm new... I'm not used to your humor.
BushBaby said:No, not really Quisqueyana32. My comment re driving & alcohol might appear harsh to those who don't have a sense of humour, but most people on this board have got used to my weird 'British' sense of humour after 6 years of posting here & allow me my little idiosyncracies now & then!!
The opening sentance was meant as a jest to open up for what was to follow. The comment re 'Faceless Dolls' was realistic & the comment re 'Cheese grater' & Bongos was just to cover up my inefficiencies at knowing the FULL & CORRECT names for these musical instruments!! ~ Grahame.
Point taken. Since I'm new... I'm not used to your humor.
Thanks
Hi Quisqueyana32,
Thank you so much for your help. Any projects you could reccommend would be helpful. Are you still a pre-school teacher?
Hi Quisqueyana32,
Thank you so much for your help. Any projects you could reccommend would be helpful. Are you still a pre-school teacher?
Maybe you could make small kites, using plastic straws or wooden dowels for the frame, and red, blue and white paper (the colors of the DR national flag). Put them a very long tail and voila! And then, you organize a kite day so the children can put them to fly.
Hola
Right now I'm teaching Spanish in a immersion language program called Lingua.
One idea is to make papier mache masks worn by the "diablo cajuelos" for
Carnaval in The Dominican Republic with is a big deal. I'm trying to find a book that showes how to make this masks... But the easyest way is to buy thesrealli simple plastic masks and then papeir mache the surfis,then you can add hornes, etc.
http://www.dominicanmasks.com/gallery.html
this web site has a lot of great pictures if you need some edeas of what they look like.
You can also make bejigas wich is what they use to hit people or scare the with. For that you need to inflate a baloon then cover it with papier mache. then of course you paint it with bright colors when every thing is dry.
Thi only thing about this is that it take more than 45 min. What I used to do was that I did it in two parts. We would do the painting the next day.
I hope this helps.. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Q
wogteacher said:Hi Quisqueyana32,
Thank you so much for your help. Any projects you could reccommend would be helpful. Are you still a pre-school teacher?
Right now I'm teaching Spanish in a immersion language program called Lingua.
One idea is to make papier mache masks worn by the "diablo cajuelos" for
Carnaval in The Dominican Republic with is a big deal. I'm trying to find a book that showes how to make this masks... But the easyest way is to buy thesrealli simple plastic masks and then papeir mache the surfis,then you can add hornes, etc.
http://www.dominicanmasks.com/gallery.html
this web site has a lot of great pictures if you need some edeas of what they look like.
You can also make bejigas wich is what they use to hit people or scare the with. For that you need to inflate a baloon then cover it with papier mache. then of course you paint it with bright colors when every thing is dry.
Thi only thing about this is that it take more than 45 min. What I used to do was that I did it in two parts. We would do the painting the next day.
I hope this helps.. Let me know if you have any more questions.
Q
Merengue
It's agreat Idea and the 45 min. will go by quickly.
stewart said:Why don't you teach them a little merengue. The music and dancing would be a lot of fun for the kids I think. They don't need to have partners. Just teach a couple of simple steps. If I can do it, than any kid can.
It's agreat Idea and the 45 min. will go by quickly.
stewart said:Why don't you teach them a little merengue. The music and dancing would be a lot of fun for the kids I think. They don't need to have partners. Just teach a couple of simple steps. If I can do it, than any kid can.
Earlier in the day we are having Dominican dancers from our High School come in and perform as well as teach the students some steps...thanks for the idea!