Our local primary school’s parent-teacher organization sought to bring in an artist in residence to work with all of the school’s ~400 students, with the end goal that each child would have their own project to bring home. I proposed a collage project, using assorted picture books with collage illustrations as a starting point. Due to various scheduling constraints, I ended up working with the older students first, then moving down the line grade by grade from fifth through the school’s small pre-kindergarten class. As someone who had never done this scale of project with young kids before, I’m thankful the schedule worked out this way, as it helped me see what each group of kids needed and where there were struggles, allowing me to “right-size” the activity for the next, younger group.
I started the project with the oldest (4th-5th grade) students with Gary R. Gray, Jr.’s I’m From, beautifully illustrated in collage by Oge Mora. After discussing the book together, the kids spent the rest of our first session together decorating paper, using various mark-making techniques like stamps and rubbings to create tone-on-tone textures on construction paper. We then spent the subsequent two sessions planning out the collage images, cutting and tearing shapes, and then assembling the collages on repurposed sheets of corrugated cardboard.
For the next round of students (2nd-3rd grade), I structured the sessions similarly with some minor adjustments. To align with the students’ science curriculum, I used Leo Lionni’s Inch by Inch as our springboard book. I also simplified some of the activities (and the resulting clean up!) by relying more on dry media for the paper decorating (favoring crayons and colored pencils over tempera paint), and using “glue sponges” for applying the white glue (thanks to a clever suggestion from one of the 4th grade teachers!).
The 1st and 2nd graders also heard me read aloud from a Leo Lionni book, this time Frederick. Given the shorter session length with the younger kids, and the stockpile of decorated paper we had amassed with the older kids, I opted to skip the paper decorating and go straight into collage planning with this group. We spent a lot more time learning some of the basics of breaking down our subjects into basic shapes, and the mechanics of using white glue without inadvertently becoming part of the collage ourselves! And finally, for the youngest artists in the pre-k class, I further streamlined the activity, reading Eric Carle’s classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar and providing pre-cut paper shapes based loosely on the visual vocabulary of the book.
It was so inspiring to watch all these young artists take to the activity in their own way, some closely mirroring the collaged illustrations in the books I shared, some going in entirely different directions; some kids relying on their already-impressive artistic skills, others learning to work through some frustration to find a way to realize their ideas. My absolute favorite aspect was just chatting with the kids, hearing what was on their minds, and listening to them explain the mythologies they had invented and then depicted in their artworks. By highlighting the Caldecott-winning illustrators featured in each book, I hope the kids walk away from the experience with a reminder that art-making isn’t just a children’s endeavor, and continue to nurture their creativity as they grow up.
As luck would have it, the first round of art sessions aligned neatly with the district-wide art show, enabling several of the 4th and 5th graders I worked with to participate. It was so exciting to see their work on display!
Many thanks to the Sunset PTSO for making this project possible!