Collage in the style of Eric Carle – 2nd & 3rd Grade

National Core Art Standards:

“refine and complete artistic work”
-“create personally satisfying artwork using a variety of artistic processes and materials”
-“add details to add meaning”
-“develop a work of art based on observations of surroundings”
-“interpret art by analyzing use of media to create subject matter, characteristics of form,
and mood”
-“demonstrate an understanding of the safe and proficient use of materials, tools, and
equipment for a variety of artistic processes”

Common Core Standards:

“Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences.”

3rd Grade Curriculum expectations/learning objectives:

-to create animals/plants based on what they are learning in their general ed. classes
-to work both individually and collaboratively as a team/class
-improving their use of hand eye coordination
-to learn about tints and shades, as well as warm vs. cool colors
-to learn how to make paper collage using overlapping shapes while paying attention to
proportion

Vocabulary:
-warm & cool, tints/shades, paper collage, naturalistic/realistic proportion, overlapping
shapes/forms, pattern, texture, line, detail

Materials:
-heavy white paper, tempera/acrylic paint and palettes, sponges, mark-making tools,
brushes and water, tracing paper, graphite pencils, scissors, glue, oil pastel

Lesson Outline:
Day 1:
-Introduce Eric Carle & his artwork and style of collage by reading/showing his books
-Ask students how they think he makes his illustrations, then show video of how he
creates his papers.
-Then pass around his books to show close-up examples of ideas/inspiration for the kids.
-Talk about and reiterate what they are learning in their other classes about squirrels,
dinosaurs, and how they will also be learning about plants next semester too.
-Ask students to think about what animal/plant they’d like to make (and have them
research and bring in images next class from home).
-Begin passing out white paper, tempera/acrylic paints and palettes, water bins and
brushes as well as tools to add details/textures/patterns, and divide the class into groups
of 2 and assign each team a color from the spectrum that they need to make several
papers with. (kids can wear smocks while working if get’s messy)
-Rest of class time is spent on team building and painting. Sheets of colored, painted
papers to be set on drying rack and make sure to leave at least 5-10 minutes for proper
cleanup of brushes, tools, and resetting of water cups and palettes.

Day 2:
-Meet at carpet to show what the class will be doing for the day. Show an example of the
start of a cut-out animal collaged onto a white background heavy duty paper.
-Meet at back demo. table to show how to draw an animal/plant from a reference image
through observation by breaking down the animal/plant into sections that will be cut out
from the painted papers.
-Show how to break down segments of the animals/plants the kids chose and use tracing
paper to create outlines in pencil of each section that kids will want to cut out from the
painted papers.
-Explain what different tints, shades, warm & cool colors are and suggest how to use
darker tones on edges of figures/drawings and show technique of overlapping cut-out
shapes to glue down. Try to have kids finish cutting everything out and hopefully gluing
most of their animals/plants together today.
-Work time and individual one on one time to help kids who have questions/need help.
-spend last 5 minutes cleaning up – (recycling scrap papers, putting materials back in
order, and telling kids to make sure they signed and labeled their artwork by name and
class code #)
-Review how students performed today if there’s time while lining up to leave the room.

Day 3:
-Meet again at carpet to review Eric Carle’s artwork by passing out books again and
showing the layers of detail he included in his animals, plants.
-Meet at back table again and demonstrate how to add in details and more realistic
animals/plants by using oil pastel to highlight/darken certain areas of light and shadow.
-Show a completely finished sample(s) of the project and suggest to kids how to add a
background by either using oil pastel or adding in additional cutout pieces of painted
paper for a foreground/background.
-Have most of class be work time again & go around to help kids one on one.
Day 4/at the end of Day 3: Have kids present their finished artwork and go around and
explain what they learned about the specific animal/plant and how they decided to
portray it in their artistic process/technique/methods.
And ask the class as a whole if they liked the project and tell them how great a job they
did working both individually and collaboratively!

Assessment:
- Did students effectively and successfully work together as a team?
- Did students present accurate knowledge of the anatomy of their animals/plants as
well as present additional information regarding what they learned about them
from science class?
- Did students demonstrate and understanding of color, paper collage, and
proportion?
- Did students put enough time, effort, and detail into their artwork?