Cut Paper Turtle Collages

Elibern, Kindergarten

I abandoned trying to teach Art concepts after my first Art class on Shapes and Lines. They had a hard time following directions in my abstract coloring project from this awesome book, Drawing with Children It was very similar to this "draw three lines from one edge of the paper to another, draw seven dots, and draw a circle that intersects another mark on the page." The kindergarteners didn't seem to understand what I was trying to say about lines. They were not engaged at all. I just didn't have the skills to keep them engaged at that point. So I decided to try and do a collage with my K-2 class.

Before class I printed out some turtles on construction paper. I gave them the turtles to cut out. It was good cutting practice for the kindergarten class. I asked them to decorate the turtles. I also gave them a piece of gray paper, had them cut out a rock shape. Once the rock was cut out, I had them crumple it up to give it some texture. The they smoothed it out again and used it with their collage. I used some stamps to create patterned paper which the kids could use to add foliage and flowers.

I heard a lot of "I don't know what to do" and "I don't know how to cut out a leaf/flower". I makes me wonder how much other parents encourage their kids to draw, cut, color or paste. I think it is an important part of learning, so I often encourage my girls to make things. I hope that other parents are doing the same. The kids had a great time and were much more engaged in this project than the previous week.

Here are a few of my favorites...

Amanda, Second Grade

Karis, Kindergarten (also, my daughter...lol)

Sara, First Grade

Volunteer Art Teacher K-6... what was I thinking!

So, a little about me... I am a 42 year old SAHM who is an RN by profession. I live in Kentucky and the oldest of my 2 daughters attends a private, christian school in Louisville. It is a small school, with about 70 students. We don't have the funds to hire an Art Teacher, so the teachers generally teach Art themselves, if they have time. Last year, my daughter was in the K-2 Class, in kindergarten. I am friends with her teacher and offered to teach art, to give her a break.

Now, I have absolutely NO training in Art or teaching. I mean, I did teach English as a Second Language in Russia for a year, but I have not had any classes in education. I also am not an artist as per se. I can draw a recognizable house/horse/human, but no one would pay anything to look at it. I just wanted to give the kids more than a craft project every week. Don't get me wrong, I love crafting... I just wanted to get the kids thinking about the emotions and feelings that color and paintings (and music) can evoke.

I also went to private christian schools growing up, but they were all much larger. They had full time art and music teachers. I was blessed to experience the fun of seeing my creations up on the school hallway walls. I wanted these kids to have that fun too.