2nd grade collage

Let’s start with leaves, a printmaking unit.

At our school we have an awesome library and in fact, we have wonderful, and helpful librarians who were able to find great books to get us started. For the first class in this unit I simply took the kids out to our school garden and they were to draw leaves, or any other nature treasures they wanted to draw in their sketchbooks. The sketchbooks are these composition books which we personalized with magazines images and words. 

Seeing as this is fall and flowers are drying out for the winter, the kids got very excited about seeds. Seeds were everywhere. This child here is pocketing some seeds to take home and plant. Their high level of excitement was energizing to witness and I knew we were on a good path to learning. 

             During the walk we also collected some "treasures" and I took the time to individually display them in these clear pockets. I used clear tape to tape each natural treasure to a white paper and stuck the papers in the clear pocket. The next class (class #2) kids were given these cards as a resource. Using black markers (felt pens/sharpies) kids tried drawing what they saw. They were so incredibly fun to watch. I have a class set of these small private eyes, they are small, individual-use magnifying glasses. The kids were so interested and intrigued by what they found when looking through them. 



The drawings from this second lesson were just to die for!! Each one could easily be on a t-shirt or a printed card. 


I am so excited about these drawings. They just make me smile. Kids' drawings will always trump any drawings adults could make, they look effortless and spontaneous. 

Tweeted: "Drawing the items we found yesterday during our nature walk using loops #scienceconnection #apsarts #artsed #cis_aps ⁦@SrPadillaAPS⁩ ⁦@Cante2_CIS⁩ "

Transferring our drawings onto the printing plate. 


Using scratchfoam and pens to press down, make the lines thicker and color in a few shapes. 

These printing plates are ready to be printed. 


Our initial prints. I provided them with assorted, colored fadeless paper and ONLY black ink. In the past I have given them various ink colors and white paper...but, I find the doling out of one color onto the trays much easier than constantly being asked to provide a specific color to a specific table. The assorted fadeless paper allows me kids control of some color while allowing me a bit more freedom to actually walk around and assist where needed. 

Collage -2nd grade

Before embarking on a new unit I usually have students play with the media some so that I can get a gauge on what their interest and strengths and weaknesses are. In this case students were given Fiskars Squeeze punchers, creative scissors, hole punchers and small punchers along with glue and beautiful fadeless paper. Their assignment was to simply make a collage, any collage on a double blank page of their sketchbook, which in this case is just a composition book. Because I only has about 10 Fiskars punchers I combined the tables and had them work on one extended long table. This allowed more kids easy access to the limited set of materials. 


I was not expecting extreme sophisticated work this first time at bat with collage. It's important that kids get our of the way all the cliche type of ideas and slowly move onto more technically involved aspects of the media. For example, some more advanced students were starting to overlap and use the papers with negative space created when shapes were cut out. Some were using layers and combining simple shapes to make more complex figures. Sophistication only begins to happen once the child has had lots of exposure with the media. Experience cannot be rushed. The kids who are more advanced are often kids who have more freedom to make art at home and access to thee types of materials prior to class. 




Each work below shows overlap, combining simple shapes to make more complex figures, use of paper to detail and the use of overlap to create a sense of space. 

Below, this artist realized that when overlapping a shape with a hole, the color beneath it is revealed through the hole. 

A couple of broken hearts surely hold a narrative. In fact every single one of these collages hold a narrative. 

BY looking at their work I can tell this child found out that when you punch a small circle hole from a larger circle you get a moonlike shape, then chose to use the shape several times. Again, these finding can only one could learned by trying, failing, discovering on one's own. When exploration time is gutted from a unit they lose all these amazing finding. Accidental findings like these add up to an experienced artist. 

Aside from being extremely visually appealing, this collage below surely also holds a narrative.  would be very interested to know or have kids interpret. 

It's no surprise that after our bee unit kids would still be making beehives. 


The artist for the collage below told me it was a Christmas tree. Again, when allowing kids to create their own art from the media you are allowing a much higher level of thinking. Had I provided them with the idea of what to make I would have taken away from them that valuable aspect of art-making. Choice does not always mean all choices for all media at all times. With the limited time I have with them (35 minutes) I can only afford to give them choice in the content, the media must all be the same due to the limited time we have to work together. This level of freedom works for me and the kids. I never tell them what to make art about. Their ideas come from them and as all famous artists they have learned about it's in the ideas where the artist resides. 

Although we were mostly focused on 2d work this artist was so excited about making his collage 3d....I loved his enthusiasm and so it's 3d. 

These are the materials kids had access to today. I believe I will have them make several collages in their book so that all students gain sufficient experience with this media before we begin our final collage. 

Kindergarteners tracing holiday themed shapes

            Today I did a google search for simple holiday images that could be recognized immediately by their shape alone. I cut them out of folder material and used them with my kindergarteners. They were super simple. I cut out candy canes, bows, gingerbread man, mitten, star, gift, hearts, candle, holly leaf, tree, dove, ornament, etc. 




I demonstrated to the students how to use both hands to properly trace the shapes. Most importantly, I also demonstrated what to do if I lose my place and my shape moves. You simply move it back to its place like a puzzle peace. 

Notice the fine motor skill practice being used by this child below. 



Students showed great pride in their work. 



These are sample drawings created using markers on 12"x18" paper