created by Ashtyn559 in Grade 3 at
Goodhue Public Schools
from school project "3rd - Hmong Flower Clothes"
art id #75892072
About this School Project (3rd - Hmong Flower Clothes)
Students in 3rd grade learned about the
Hmong culture in this interdisciplinary art
project. After the Vietnam War, thousands
of Hmong people fled their homes in Laos to
survive in refugee camps in Thailand—even after fighting alongside American soldiers in the war. As a class, we first read the book, The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee’s Story, to learn about what it was like for a young Hmong girl, Mai, to live in a refugee camp. Mai has many sad memories of fleeing her home and losing her parents and eventually creates a Pa Ndau story cloth to show her story.
Today, there are thousands of people from the Hmong culture who have relocated to the United States and continue to make Pa Ndaus. These textiles are a very well-known type of art from the Hmong culture, especially the two types of Pa Ndaus—flower cloth and story cloth.
As a class, we studied the flower cloth and noticed that the design had radial symmetry. No matter which way we turn the design, it radiated from the center and was always the same. We also noticed the many layers of designs and multiple colors. Students then applied these observations and made their own “flower cloths.” The final product shows the students’ understanding of radial symmetry, layering, and creating complex designs.
