Beginning the Collage Process

Learning to collage!

I get the pleasure to introduce these student to collage! A word that up until today, none of them had ever heard of, but by the time I'm gone they will know the concept well. Yesterday the students created watercolor "color fields" as I call them, or prepared paper-- which today was ripped up according to color family (warm and cool). Students used acrylic paints today-- paints I found in the mystery paper closet-- to create even more painted paper to collage with. They also got a chance to print their hands, because I have always been fond of hand prints, no matter how cheesy they are... it's just fun to paint your hands. Plain and simple. Needless to say, we made a little mess in the bathroom sink... which I had to clean up later. In the photos you'll see their working on a large paper collage using the blue papers. That will eventually become the background to the world map-- the oceans of course! And just to add a little academics in, I quizzed the 3/4 graders on their oceans. They got all, except one girl said, "The Indiana Ocean!" My response, "Close enough!"

Tomorrow is the last day on my first week. Summer school is a four-day week-- but for me that means a VERY long weekend. We also have Monday off for Memorial day... so I'm wishing I brought a couple more books. Skype anyone?

A young lady using watercolor paper to collage the ocean.

Preparing collage paper...