Collage with materials — Art, 4–6 years
Build a picture by choosing, arranging and joining different materials. Art, 4–6 years.
A picture from pieces
A collage is a picture made by arranging and attaching pieces such as paper, fabric, leaves or card. Each piece keeps some of its own colour or texture. Together, the pieces can show a person, a place, an animal or an imagined world.
Why use pieces?
Sometimes a pencil cannot show a rough, shiny or soft surface very well. Collage solves this by letting the material itself become part of the picture. Artists also use scraps because they can reuse things that might be thrown away and discover surprising combinations.
Make a paper tree
Choose brown paper for a trunk and tear a long strip. Tear three green pieces for the tree crown and place them above the trunk. Add small red pieces as apples. Move all the pieces until the tree looks balanced, then glue them down one at a time.
Glue comes last
A common mistake is gluing the first piece immediately, then finding that the other pieces do not fit. This is reasonable because the first piece feels ready to place. Try the whole arrangement without glue first; moving pieces is part of making the picture, not a sign that it failed.
Materials tell a story
Collage is used in greeting cards, posters, picture books and decorations. A shiny wrapper can suggest water, while a rough piece of bark can suggest a tree. In real design work, people choose materials for how they look, feel and help the message stand out.
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