Preschool kids can collage without scissors.

I know it sounds unusual as collage for kids is usually done by using various kinds of paper and the children often need to cut them up into the sizes they want.

Torn paper collage is another collage in our series that encourages the children to come face to face with a new way of doing something.

They now have to think of how they will create a collage without precut pieces and no scissors.

The instructions for this  collage are simple

The children are given a choice from a stack of construction papers to choose two colors and two colors only. (at least for the first collage)

Once they have their two papers they are told that they are to use one color as the base and the other paper they are to use to collage with.

The only problem is they have to create the pieces they wish to collage with on their own by tearing the papes they will collage withand there are NO SCISSORS allowed. Only glue.

The children may get a bit disconcerted at first, especially if they are not used to creating independently. If they are, they will like the challenge and get to work.

Below are samples and what you can expect from different ages.

The first one below was from a 4 year old child. Younger children than this will often create similar pieces. Random tearing and just gluing the papers all over the place without much thought.

The two collages below were children around the same age as the one above but it is obvious that they were giving thought to the placement of their pieces.

The children below were obviously a little older children and they were actually using this activity to create representational pictures which shows a much higher level of maturity than the previous children.

Very often I give children another challenge  after they finish the first one   and this time was no different.

I told the children that they were to make a second torn paper collage but this time they could also add feathers to their collages.

Some children used only the feathers but others took the assignment seriously and added feathers to their torn paper collages.

When you are doing this with children you can add many variable to make it interesting.

• You can use brown kraft paper as a background and give the children classified sections from the newspapers to tear(this was the activity I was given to do in my art for teachers class in graduate school)
• After the first collage you can allow them a number of colors to choose from to tear
• You can add different materials at different times. Googly eyes, crafts sticks, sequins etc are just some of the items you can add.

Be careful though that you don’t add too much as they will not concentrate on the torn paper idea but will make it into another collage which you can save for another time.

I absolutely love this activity. I hope you do too.