Matisse Inspired Collages in Grade Three

Posted on March 14, 2010 by artlessonsforkids

Matisse is one of my favorite artists because I love the simplicity of his collages and kids can relate so much to his art in any grade level. We went online to find information about Henri Matisse and his artwork. The kids immediately fell in love with the vibrant colors in his collages and wanted to get to a pair of scisssors as fast as they could.

I set out colored paper around the classroom, glue bottles and scissors and let the kids go for it. I reminded them for this project they could either create panels for their backgrounds and fill them with organic shapes or simply do a collage filled with organic shapes. No pencils were allowed and they had to freely cut away. They also needed to plan their shapes and arrange them before glueing anything down.

They had such a great time and the result was colorful and beautiful. What do you think?

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Self-Portrait Busts in Grade 6

Posted on January 26, 2010 by artlessonsforkids

These took quite a while to make and required patience, problem solving and imagination. It’s amazing what you can do with a box, balloon and paper mache! Find more self-portrait lesson ideas here. I think they turned out lovely don’t … Continue reading →

Leaf Collages in Grade Two

Posted on January 5, 2010 by artlessonsforkids

I adore teaching this lesson with my kids because they are always amazed by the magic that happens when you put leaves together to create a picture.

Start by collecting many leaves with your kiddos. Give each student scissors, a bag and gloves. The bag is to put the leaves in and the gloves to avoid any allergic reactions when handling leaves–trust me on this one!

Go for a nature walk and visit the trees around your school and with the scissors show the kids how to carefully cut a leaf off the branch. I live in Bahrain so we don’t have many trees to choose from and you just don’t see leaves lying on the ground. This is why we need to cut fresh leaves. Make sure kids collect different sized leaves especially small ones because these become ‘details’ such as scales, dots, etc.

Go back to class and have everyone sort their leaves. Give each child an old magazine with their name on it. Have the kids place their leaves between the pages. let each child take their gloves home and tell them to collect more leaves especially smaller ones for one whole week. Each time they bring in leaves they go into their magazine.

There are some great books out there with leaf art to show your kids for inspiration. My favorite has to be “Look What I did With a Leaf” by Morteza E Sohi.

Have the students take out all their leaves and do a practice run by making a picture with their leaves. This will help them ORGANIZE their thoughts and make any changes. The rules are NO CUTTING allowed and you must use the entire leaf. Give out glue bottles when everyone is ready, a large piece of 12×18 white construction paper and be amazed at the wonderful pictures the kids will come up with. Stick to making animals with the younger grades.

Didn’t these turn out so lovely?

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