As many of you know, I occasionally teach art and craft classes for kids at the Banff Public Library. My most recent class taught kids aged 6 - 10 about collage. While I normally create my own projects I decided to use an idea from a wonderful series of books from Kids Can Press. 123 I Can Collage by Irene Luxbacher, is just one in a series of art making books which also included 123 I Can Draw and 123 I Can Make Prints. These books are wonderful for teaching groups of children or your own children about making art. The projects are well explained in step by step photographs. They are colorful, fun, and adaptable. The fish collage I chose to make with the kids was by far my favorite in the collage book. I am drawn to circles and here the circles mimic fish scales.
My four year old daughter and I each made our own fish so I could bring a demo to the class. I was impressed by our results. I keep all of my paper scraps and I was able to use all recycled materials for this craft. It is a nice project for using up scrapbooking paper, old greeting cards, magazine pages, and more. I brought the punched circles to the class, but had the kids glue their paper onto matboard (you can just use poster board), draw and cut the head, tails, and fins, arrange all their circles, and rip paper for the water.
Isn't amazing how you can give a group of kids the same materials and they can all create very different works of art? Check your local library for these books and create some art with a child close to you.
