German Holiday Tradition Nutcrackers

This week in art we are learning the history of nutcrackers and how they went from a tool to a work of art that is now part of our holiday traditions.
Students started with a folded in half, black paper and then placed a rectangle template right on top of the fold in the middle and traced around it for the body of their nutcracker. Then we began adding details and talked about how these objects were brought over to the US by soldiers returning home for Christmas after WWII. This became a popular American holiday tradition during the 1950's and has been a part of our festivities ever since!
To finish the project students traced over their pencil drawing lines with black oil pastel and then colored in each section solid.