Painted Ponies of PPLE - Collaborative Group Project 5th grade

This project was inspired by THE TRAIL OF PAINTED PONIES a community art project from New Mexico and available as COLLECTIBLE ART at trailofpaintedponies.com.

1) Students wrote idea starters before beginning project. They wrote: favorite season, something they are good at, favorite color, etc.
2) We watched a video trailer from youtube about the trail of painted ponies community art project. Students took notes as part of writing across curriculum goals.
3) We discussed video and how the artists helped their community with their horse project. 
4) 5th graders were shown collectible painted ponies and discussed what made them marketable.
5) Students were given a horse on copy paper and began to design their own painted pony.
6) Designs were turned in, and my intern teacher and I went thru the designs from each class.  We narrowed it down to 12 per class based on the following criteria: originality, marketability (appeals to many people), if a 5th grader could paint the design and if it had an obvious theme.
7) Student names were hidden and the classes narrowed their favorites down to 6, doing pencil and paper and completely secret voting. (We told them they were the painted pony judges!) We felt certain that those chosen were based on the criteria, not popularity of the designer since it was done anonymously.

8) The original designer of the pony became the group lead artist, and they were assigned a team for the group collaboration.