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