We started our three week Art & Literacy session with Eric Carle’s book The Hungry Caterpillar. I love how storytelling can communicate a theme and inspire art.
Usually we start class inside and move outdoors for a second project of free-time, but for this class we took advantage of the warm weather and circled up for story-time.
Our ultimate project was collage but first we needed to make textured paper to use in our collage as Eric Carle did. We painted with everything but paintbrushes. Our tools included foam rollers, textured scrapers, sponges and cleaning tools from the dollar store, and potato mashers for printing.
Each class created large textured Papers. We kept the warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) on the table top and used cool colors (blue, green, and purple) on the wall.
The first class of the week used dried warm and cool paper pieces that were made prior to the start of class but as the week progressed my classes utilized textured paper made by classes before them that were already dry.
Inspired by Eric Carle’s collage technique we drew and cut shapes to make scenes, objects, or designs. Some children used stencils while some drew free hand or just practiced cutting strips into shapes. I encouraged students to draw on the back of the textured paper so if they didn’t cut exactly on the line it wouldn’t show.
Children love to cut and glue and this project satiated that desire!
Here are some fabulous finished pieces and proud students!
