Creating Through Imagination

This week we spent one afternoon making collages in Shooting Star. The kids had never done such an open and uninstructed art project before and I thought after a year of working with them, they would be ready. Art is important in the classroom because it fosters creativity, expression, and it helps kids learn how to work with different materials, but often it has guidelines, rules, or a goal. With a collage there are no guidelines or boundaries. The kids could make anything they wanted, with whatever supplies were available on the table. 

The freedom for a child to create anything they want is just as important as them being able to follow directions in another type of project. A collage focuses on the actual hands on experience of working with the materials, rather than the finished product being a predetermined picture. 

In a collage, the kids get to choose what they want to use and how they’d like to use it. They can cut whatever they want, glue whatever they want, use as much glue as they’d like, rub their hands in paint, rip paper into little pieces, pile one material on top of the other, and there is no one to say that’s not ok. They have complete freedom in every aspect of the project. Although they are given the freedom in lack of direction from a teacher, it is also an activity that teaches them to make choices. There is no one to tell them which materials to use, how to use them, or in what order. They decide when they are finished and when they want to wash their hands. Everything was a choice they were able to make, and I just observed and talked to them about what they were creating. I didn’t make any suggestions or provide any ideas for what they should do. I wanted to watch each mind at work and watch each personality emerge through the collage.

I think the most important thing about creating through a collage is it is the purest form of creativity. Often kids judge their artwork against one another, and some feel as if others can draw or paint better. In directed activities they often tell me, “I can’t do it, help me!” when we get to a certain step that is difficult. Even at four years old, some children get stuck on a step and will continue erasing or will crumple up their paper in frustration. When creating a collage there is no good or bad. Every collage is unique and amazing in its own way. It’s a great way to build confidence in children when doing art. 

In art and creativity the mind is best when it can be wild and free.