Wood Collage and Painting

Four our wood collage project we used reclaimed wood from an old fence that I picked up in my neighborhood, white glue, and wooden shapes and foam shapes from Discount School Supplies.

Usually I encourage the kids to get their squeezing ya-yas out and go for the gusto with the glue but for this project we switched modes and practiced “glue control” by making dots. Most of the kids really got into this. The foam and shapes inspired glue control and acted as good targets for their glue dots.

This project was planned over two days. Day one is about gluing and building. Day two will focus on painting and chalk pastel additions.
Most students placed their shapes randomly as I had done in my example but a few were inspired to create compositions.

Painting glitter water color on wood proved to be a fascinating experience with beautiful results. Wood, being more porous than paper naturally soaks up the watercolor faster so it was a good challenge for the students too. We did a lot of dipping as they were painting!

Some students focused more on painting their foreground (wooden and foam shapes) while some concentrated more on the background.