Collaging gives students the ability to express their creativity and even helps them develop their fine-motor skills. That’s why Montessori early childhood art collaging activities are great to introduce to students! The activity involves the process of selecting, assembling, and pasting a variety of materials down into a unique arrangement.
It’s an ideal craft for early childhood students because collages are intuitive arrangements; they’re the perfect artful playground for kids to craft in.
This is part of a larger post, The Ultimate Montessori Art Collaging Guide, goes into further detail on the benefits and provides tips and resources for all Montessori levels.
You can read the blog by clicking here.
Montessori first plane students, 3-6 years, are ready for simple collage making crafts. This is an exciting age for art making, since they’re likely crafting and exploring different art mediums for the very first time!
Early childhood students are able to hold materials, practice scissor cutting, and explore the different collaging mediums tactilely. They can dip a paintbrush into glue, learn to paste, and make simple arrangements. It’s best to keep instructions simple—giving them just one- or two-step instructions. (For example, cut and paste; or paste and arrange.)
It’s best for early childhood students to work in process-based mode (or creative-mode), which means art making focuses on the process, not the outcome. Again, any copy-mode creating should be basic; with simple instructions meant to build implicit memory. You should allow students to try Montessori early childhood art collaging without any expected outcome. [You can learn more about process-based teaching by clicking here to read more about the method.]
Where to Start: Simple Montessori Early Childhood Art Collaging Activities
Children at 3-6 years are very curious about materials and how they can be used. At this age, they’re very quick learners! By introducing art collaging you can actually help refine their small motor muscles, since the activity involves making controlled movements through cutting, pasting, and manipulating the collaging mediums.
Keep collage materials very basic at first. I’d suggest starting with light-weight paper and glue sticks. This gives students the opportunity to learn more about how adhesive works, and they’ll be able to build upon that skill as they create more and more. After they’ve had a few chances to explore this type of art activity, you’ll see that they’ll likely have a decent understanding of how collaging works, and will want to create with new types of materials.
Collaging can be done with any type of material: paper, fabric, natural elements, recycled objects (buttons, tiny beads, pieces of cardboard, etc.), sequins, foil, glass, wire, and burlap. However, since young children are still developing their fine-motor skills, make sure the objects are easy to grasp, pinch, or hold.
They can also be a little impatient at this age, so you also want to make sure the objects they’re crafting with can be easily pasted onto their working surface. (You don’t want things falling off their canvas, and you don’t want to have to use a glue gun to make sure their designs stay in place!) Tape can also be used in place of adhesive glues and pastes; washi tape comes in a bunch of fun designs and can add to the art they’re creating!
Be sure to give children plenty of time to experiment with making different arrangements. It takes some time to understand how to paste, arrange, and press down or hold their design objects into place to create the look they desire.
One Step Further: Register for My FREE Online Mini-Course
Introducing your lower elementary students to collaging concepts is just one Montessori art activity out of thousands. Lower elementary students are capable of so much when it comes to art! But if you want to keep your students interested in your demonstrations and keep the mess down to a minimum, you have to understand how they learn. That way you can find the perfect balance of teaching them without overwhelming or boring them. And I’ve developed a FREE digital mini-course—the Phases of Art Development—to help you do just that!
It’s an online course that explains how art making helps students develop their creativity, fine-motor skills, and focus. Not only will it help you teach your students, but I make it easier on you by giving you some examples of art projects lower elementary kids will enjoy creating.
Best of all—it’s free! To sign up for the course, click here.
A Short Cut Just for You: Early Childhood Art Guide
Art collaging is just one of the many art activities early childhood students are capable of doing. If you want more ideas, and more importantly, if you want to better understand how early childhood students actually learn art, check out my book, Early Childhood Art: Visual Arts Teaching Guide. It lays the groundwork for what your students need to know about art and provides tips and tricks for setting up an art environment, using proper art materials and mediums, and planning age-appropriate art lessons. Click here to get your copy of my Early Childhood Art guide!