Kids Collage Ideas

Collage is an art form that even very young children can enjoy.

Kids love simple and creative arts and crafts projects, and nothing is more open-ended and fun than making collages. While it is always a good idea to create your own collage using whatever materials you have on hand, you can make the collage experience educational and focused when you introduce a theme. While some collage ideas take time to prepare, the educational benefit and artistic experience you're providing for children make the extra effort worth it.

Letter Collage

Gather a few old magazines that you no longer need and a pair of scissors. Flip through the magazine and find letters or words written in interesting fonts. Use the scissors to cut out these letters and collect them in a plastic baggie or a small container. You may also choose to cut out interesting phrases or sentences that children may enjoy. Once you have collected a fair amount of letters and words, allow children to use these in a collage project. Give children a large piece of construction paper or poster board and a glue stick to complete their project. Older children can create a paragraph or story using the letters and words, while very young children will enjoy manipulating the letters and words into interesting shapes and designs.

Faces Collage

Collect a few old beauty and fashion magazines with many pictures of faces and hairdos. Be sure to include a diverse array of skin tones, eye colors and facial shapes. Use scissors or a small utility knife to cut out facial features, such as eyes, noses, lips, chins and hair. Collect these pieces in a plastic sandwich bag or a small container. Give children a piece of construction paper and a glue stick to create a few different faces using the different features you've cut out.

Colored Pasta Collage

Dye some uncooked pasta using rubbing alcohol and several different colors of food coloring. Use many different shapes of pasta such as wagon wheels, spirals or macaroni. Allow the dyed pasta to dry overnight and place it in several different containers, either by color or by shape. Children can create a textured collage by glueing the colored pasta shapes to a piece of cardboard or poster board.

Nature Hike Collage

Give children a paper bag and head into the great outdoors for some inspiration for their next collage. Encourage children to collect items from nature, such as fallen leaves, grass clippings, pine needles or twigs. Once the children have collected a good amount of items in their bag, head back indoors to create the collage. Give the kids a piece of clear contact paper, sticky side up, to place their nature findings on. Cover this with another piece of contact paper and hang it in a window for a unique suncatcher.

References

• "Creative Activities for Young Children"; Mary Mayesky; 1996