Toddler Art Class: Collages

Tissue paper, foil, magazines and homemade paste combine to make a beautiful mess!

Art Project: Paper Collages with homemade paste
Supplies:
A variety of paper scraps (old magazines, tissue paper, paper bags, newspapers, etc)
paste (cooked from flour, sugar, water and vinegar)
large pieces of paper (or rolls of paper taped down to the tables)

Book:
Beautiful oops! / Saltzberg, Barney

Preparation:  
1. Cook the paste the day before to allow it to fully cool.  I cooked mine at home.
2.  Cover the tables with paper (or pass out large pieces of paper).
3.  Put collage materials in buckets and a dollop of paste onto paper plates for each table.

What the kids did:
Some kids flipped carefully through the magazine pages

Some kids just mooshed their hands into the paste (a few found joy in flinging it across the room, yikes!)

Some kids loved scrunching up the foil or crinkling and crumpling the paper

Some kids pasted paper to other paper

Hindsight Tips: 
--I made a double batch of paste (2/3 c. flour) and it ended up making a full quart jar of paste--way too much for 45 toddlers!  I froze the rest and we'll see how well it thaws....
--One mom had just scolded her child the day before for ripping up a magazine, so me asking her to tear magazine pages for a collage (or for the sensory joy of tearing paper) was very confusing!  Consider using catalogs instead, or magazines that are already very torn looking.
--some kids hated having sticky hands, so let parents know that there are wet wipes available for them when they're all done.

 Variations to try: 

--try adding even more paper textures--paper towels, coffee filters
--instead of messing with paste, have kids stick paper to the sticky side of clear contact paper

Adult Challenge of the week:  Just Watch (don't direct your child, don't DO their artwork, just let them explore on their own.  It's about the process, not the product.)