Unit Overview: Students will learn about painted paper collage in order to make their own painted paper collage monster. Student will study the artist Eric Carle and discuss how and why he create his own papers instead of using common construction paper. Students will then create painted papers for their monsters. Students will draw and write about their monster. Students will then create their collage monster using painted paper. This is one of my favorite lessons. As a child, I remember doing painted paper collage all the time. I enjoyed nothing more than making my own paper to create wonders and magical things that no one else had ever made before. I wanted my students to have this kind of experience. But, because Eric Carle lessons are so overdone, I also wanted my students to not only create their own papers, but their own creature to turn into a collage. Therefore, we have this project of collage monsters. To create a sense of community and sharing within the classroom, students made painted papers not only for themselves, but for all of their classmates. That way, students were not pressured to make tons of papers, students did not get upset were papers did not turn out the way they planned, and students got to have a piece of others artwork integrated into their own. Here are some of the painted papers. They are gorgeous! Next, students were asked to create a "blueprint" of their monster. They had to draw, color, and write about their monster before starting to cut paper. Students were asked to answer these three questions. 1. What is your monster's name? 2. What does your monster do? 3. What makes your monster special? This helps students to really focus on what their monster is about. It is also nice to integrate ELA and writing into the classroom. It allows the students to use all the skills they are learning in the classroom and apply them in a "real-life situation". (Please, avoid spelling everything for the kids. They will ask for help. Rather, sound it out with them. More often than not, they know how to spell it, they just need some reassurance.) I got some of the funniest monsters I've ever read. I got zombie bunnies, lovable monsters, scaredy monsters, killer monsters, vampire monsters, monsters that eat people, dogs, cats, houses, etc. I think this is a good exercise to allow these students imaginations to be creative and spontaneous. Here are some of the cool monsters. Students then spent a class period cutting out all of their pieces for the collage. I had them place their drawing of their monster beside them. Every time one of them would shout, "I'm done!", I'd have them assemble their monster to make sure he/she wasn't missing anything. More often than not, a leg, arm, nose, tail, tooth, or eye was missing. I left that day only to cutting. The next class period, students glued down all their monster pieces onto a colored background of their choice. They chose a color that would help their monster to "pop-off the page".
This is a time-consuming, messy, and laborious project. It took me a 4-5 classes to complete with my students. However, I think the results speak for themselves. I couldn't be prouder of these delightful 2nd graders.
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