Koinobori Art

This is a quick and easy lesson I used for my World Art and Art of Asia classes. Koinobori are carp streamers hung for Children's Day in Japan, which takes place on May 5th. I purchased the pre-made paper forms, and the children were shown images of koinobori hung and fluttering in the wind.

Designs were made by first coloring their streamers with crayola markers, and in my opinion, the more color the better! We then sprayed our designs with water and let them dry. During the following class, we added details with metallic paint markers, added paper streamers at the tail and glued the streamers together. A clothes pin held the tops of the projects together while they dried. Then just punch two holes and add some string. We were very happy with our beautiful designs!