[OP says that her 11-year-old daughter has a project that involves painting a statue of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, and is wondering if this is okay].

"They feel this would be a good hands-on learning project for the students"

Learning what??? Idolatry???!!!

That would make me VERY uncomfortable!!! I definitely would not want my daughter to participate in this "project." I would suggest you ask for an alternate project or provide a Christian item for your daughter to paint (a cross, figurines for a creche, etc.) while the rest of the class paints their idols. Or have her paint a poster board with the days of creation and paste printouts of the appropriate Bible verses under each day, illustrating the Christian version of creation. And/or complain to the principal and/or school board. There are most likely other parents uncomfortable with this, too. And if nobody nips this in the bud this year, it's likely to be compounded by being repeated next year as well.* Unless the school also promotes Christian projects, I would think they would have no leg to stand on to promote false god/false religion projects. [Although that still wouldn't make idolatrous activities acceptable, it seems like it would provide a legal argument for fighting it.] Atheists and followers of false religions complain that they are offended by Christian things. Well, these false religious things offend us Christians! Maybe we should use this same tack to fight back!