Curvy Line Collage

To begin this activity I showed the children a picture of Romare Bearden’s “Sea Nymph.” The picture shows gently swaying lines of shades of blue. There is also a solid black swimming figure. I asked the children, “What did the artist do to let you know this is a picture of water?” Some groups had lots of answers, other needed a few more questions like, “What colors did the art use?” and “Did the artist draw straight lines or wavy lines?”

Children then got a piece of cardboard (the greatest canvass for doing any kind of collage.) I had prepainted the cardboard – if I had had more time, I would have asked the kids to sponge on their own paint.

On the table, children had access to yarn (4 types,) glue and black fish cut out of felt. While they created I commented on what they were doing – using words like, wavy, curly and swirly. As you can tell from the pictures below, each child had their own vision of what they wanted their water picture to look like.