Collage

Paper collage provides many opportunities for children to work with flexibility as they construct an image. Students make many aesthetic judgements as they arrange, rearrange, and continue to modify their cut paper shapes. 

Processes and techniques with hands and scissors: overlapping, tearing, making cut outs, creating textures and patterns.

Emphasis on the Elements of Art: line, shape, color, and texture. 

California Arts Standards for Public Schools

CREATING—Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work. 

1.2 Enduring Understanding: Artists and designers shape artistic investigations, following or breaking with traditions in pursuit of creative artmaking goals. 

Essential Questions: How does knowing the contexts, histories, and traditions of art forms help us create works of art and design? Why do artists follow or break from established traditions? How do artists determine what resources and criteria are needed to formulate artistic investigations? 

Process Component: Imagine, Plan, Make

TK: Colorful Birds 

Artist Connections

Jorey Hurley, Nest, 2014 (Picture Book)

Watanabe Seitei, Egret and Willow, 1800s

Kindergarten: Beautiful Bugs “Minibeasts”

Artist Connections

the Billion Bug Highway on Vimeo (Animation by Benjamin Arthur)

Marien Marieke Maissen, Miscellaneous Microbeasts, 2020 

1st grade:  Neighborhood Buildings and Designing with Shapes

Artist Connections

Romare Bearden, Southern Courtyard, 1976

Romare Bearden, Interior with Profiles, 1969

2nd grade: Drawing with Scissors - Land, Sea, and Sky 

Artist Connections

Henri Matisse, The Swimming Pool, 1952

Henri Matisse, Composition Green Background (Composition fond vert), 1947

3rd grade: People and Places

Artist Connections

Jacob Lawrence, The Builders, 1974

Jacob Lawrence, Harlem Street Scene, 1975

Jacob Lawrence, When It Is Warm the Parks Are Filled with People (from The Harlem Series), 1943

4th grade: Composing a Still Life 

Artist Connections

Frida Kahlo, Still Life with Parrot and Flag, 1951

Frida Kahlo, Still Life, 1951

5th grade: Mythical Creatures 

Artist Connections

The Unicorn in Captivity (from the Unicorn Tapestries), 1495-1505

Eric Carle, The Mixed Up Chameleon, 1988 (Picture Book)