4th-6th Grade Choice Collage

Collage hasn't been my most popular studio with the intermediate kids. I think it's because when I introduced the choice, most of the students were already involved with other projects. Now I'm going back and talking about more collage options because we're at a point in the year when students need to try it out if they haven't already. Here are some of my favorite collage pieces from 1st semester.

This started off as a painting that was a bit plain. I showed the student Jasper Johns' flag and he decided to add collage elements.

I find that the older students need some of the same collage reminders as the younger students- like to actually make something new instead of just cutting and gluing a picture they already like. The collage above started as just a figure cut out of a magazine. I like how she went back and added crazy big hair.

I am so excited to see the conclusion of this giraffe collage! The 6th grade student started it totally independently and brought the pieces in the photo to class. What a fun idea!

 Some students have been doing quick experiments with painted paper scraps. I never throw away painted papers!

I wish this one had more of a background but I like how she used many different papers for the petals on the flower. I hope to have more collages to share later this semester!

Eric Carle

I get email updates from Eric Carle. In the latest email, there was a link to his blog! The blog is really cool, it has artwork and writing, his latest post is about his childhood Christmas memories.

http://ericcarleblog.blogspot.com/

The blog reminded me of the Eric Carle unit I did during student teaching last spring. Each grade K-6 did a wax resist painted paper collage project inspired by Eric Carle.

Kindergarten students learned about complementary colors and made fruit pictures. (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

1st grade students learned about the moon while making moon and stars pictures (Papa Please Get the Moon for Me)

2nd grade students learned about warm/cool colors and made caterpillars. (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)

3rd grade students cut hearts from their painted papers (3rd grade did wax resist and tempera with texture combs) which were displayed in the hall for Valentine's day.

4th grade students drew a letter out of a hat and chose a word to illustrate for that letter.

5th grade students made imaginary animals. To get the students thinking about combining parts from different animals, they were instructed to just draw the head of an animal. Next, the drawings were rotated in their group and each student added to it (exquisite corpse style.)

K-5th grade students were in charge of painting their own papers and 6th grade students were assigned a color to create for the classmates to use

6th grade students were to tell some sort of story with three parts/three illustrations. It could be a song lyric, joke, story, nursery rhyme, or process.