In the 3- and 4-year old class, we often work on lots and lots of collage projects. Painted paper works best as both background and layering components because it seems to have a heftier feeling and are easily managed by small fingers. Painted paper also often has two sides -- a painted side and unpainted side. This means the children have options within the context of the cut shape. We find it helpful to use collage pieces as basis for story lines, not just with materials, but also as launch points for actual stories.
The simple, yet instantly familiar, shapes of mud, water, and worms served well. The children learned more about process, technique, and the vocabulary of creating a collage And in this collage, they discovered how to illustrate a story of their own creation.
The children painted mud backgrounds, choosing paint shades that spoke for their vision of what mud should look like. Think about it...is mud brown? Not always. The water and worm pieces are painted paper scraps.
