3rd grade Eric Carle Inspired Collages

Eric Carle is a great source of inspiration in the Art room. Second grade created mixed-up chameleons and now third grade is finishing up their Eric Carle collages. We spent an art class dedicated to creating texture on paper with paint and some very neat paint-scraping tools. There are so many color combinations and ways to use the tools, the possibilities are nearly endless.

After this, we looked at some Eric Carle books, like "Animals, Animals" for inspiration. Students drew a sketch on newsprint paper (not pictured) to get a better understanding of the shapes of the objects and/or animals and then drew those objects and/or animals on the back of the textured paper and cut them out. Since everyone needed many colors, we created a "community" texture paper bin so we could all share.

(Eric Carle's work pictured above)

Finally, we chose a color for a background, arranged our pieces before gluing them down, and added small details with oil pastels. Their ideas blew me away... I am one proud art teacher!