Creating Collages With Kids

Originally, this project was going to be about the Dada movement. I thought kids, especially rebellious preschoolers and tweens, might enjoy an art movement that was all about breaking the rules. Plus, let's face it, the typical preschooler art project (as well as my typical art project), is usually more about the ideas than actual beauty anyway. But then I tried to find kid friendly books about the major artists behind the Dada movement, like Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray and Hannah Hoch.

But guess what? No one has written a kid-friendly book about Marcel Duchamp, the man who entitled a sculpture "Fountain", then revealed that the "sculpture" was an actual urinal. I'm pretty sure 8 year old boys would love a book about that, to tell you the truth. The only kids' book relating to Dada that I could find was this:




Granted, it looks like a pretty cool book and it explores the idea of being true to yourself, which is an idea I really like. But it doesn't give kids the basics on Dada, or how the artists and writers behind Dada encouraged the use of collage, photo montage and found objects in art.









So, if you'd like your kids to learn about Dada before doing the craft, you can read about Dada here. Otherwise, you can just skip to the collage portion.

I made the above collage when I was in college, because I had a lot free time in college. I loved making collages back in the day. I used magazines here, in case you couldn't tell. With kids, magazines can be a fun place to start (though I don't recommend having them cut up Cosmo and Glamour, which I'm pretty sure is what I did to make the above collage), provided you have an appropriate stack of magazines around and your kids are good at cutting. Newspapers can also work. But don't limit your kids to just newspapers and magazines.

I have a collage of the kids' old artwork and cards and whatnot in my office:

You could let your kids use art work that you're not preserving, or school work or family photos that didn't make it into the scrapbook. Wrapping paper scraps are another fun collage texture. If you want to keep the spirit of Dada alive in their work, encourage them to use lots of different textures and types of paper. Or have them break away from paper altogether. They can make nature collages with objects they find in the yard, or arrange their toys and take a photo for a toy collage. The possibilities are endless.

If your kiddo is still too little to be trusted with a glue stick, have her use stickers. Or cut shapes out of construction paper, put the glue on them yourself and then let the kid stick them together. Tearing the paper instead of cutting it can be fun for kids who aren't comfortable with scissors yet.

With older kids, you can talk about the message behind their collage. Help them think of a cause they care about and find ways to show that in their collage. Or just encourage them to glue whatever and wherever. Either way they'll be getting in touch with the Dada movement.