Enhanced Learning: Our Giant Collage

The children are very keen to cut and paste absolutely anything that will stick...they enjoy art without boundaries and especially like to explore a variety of materials. On this day we decided to begin another collaborative art project - we have done many paintings together but never a collage. I spread out a variety of inviting materials - feathers, buttons, wood, fabric, paddle pop sticks, pom poms, and ribbon.We began pasting on pieces in an effort to model how to combine different resources to add effect. Each child used the materials in a different way. Peyton was making a 'design to take home' Matilda arranged the wooden blocks into a neat circle and was not afraid to spread out and add her mark to different areas of the cardboard.

Next to Matilda's circle we can see a rocket made by Elle to inspire the mini artists. Soon we had several rockets being built.

Here we can see Hudson making 'a tall, tall, tall tower' He was very interested in the wooden blocks and referred to them as bricks, perhaps the glue was mortar. Our imagination drives our creativity. Hudson was imagining he was a builder and he was building a tower with bricks. We can learn so much from children's choices for creative expression.

Santai was making a shark and was drawn to spikey looking objects and explained that 'Sharks have sharp teeth', perhaps he chose to make a shark because he has noticed this particular feature of the shark and is interested in expressing his idea of 'sharp teeth'

Milly arranged paddle pop sticks in a neat row, she was careful in her colour choice and her decision making process was very purposeful. She then experimented with feathers and tried to line these up in a similar fashion to the sticks... this lead to the discovery of how shape affects symmetry and set Milly on the path to developing a theory about shapes. Milly later explained that she was making 'Letters'... this comment reveals that through art Millywas also exploring symbolism.

Later in the day we see two friends return to the collage and work next to one another. They are very busy creating their own ideas and not too much discussion is going on. I ask what Matilda is doing and she explains that ; "I'm making a border for my piece of material' Summer busy cutting out very small shapes here's this and decides to make a border for her piece of material too. Children never learn in isolation it is through relationships that explore ideas, share findings and make meaning.

Here we see Matilda carefully arranging her border around the material.

Even Emila and Persia made a contribution to our project when they visited preschool for the day. It is such an inviting project everyone wants to add their mark and be a part of the complete picture. For Emila it was amazing so much stuff to stick on and so many paint brushes to do it with...

Wow look at the collage now... a combined effort made up of so many small unique contributions. We are still building on our additions and find that we are always coming up with new ways to use the materials to express our imagination, ideas and knowledge.