Kids Craft- Father's Day Collage

Father's Day Collage

Get your local ads, photographs and magazines ready for this brainstorming work of art. Work with your children to visually represent "Dad" using photographs of people, places and things that he likes.



By definition a collage is:

"a technique of composing a work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally associated with one another, as newspaper clippings, parts of photographs, theater tickets, and fragments of an envelope." (Source)

Teach your child (students) the impact that collage has had on artists, such as; Henri Matisse, Romare Bearden, Eric Carle, and Pablo Picasso. Display artwork if possible.

Classified: Medium and is great for the 4 and up crowd.
Please note: When I taught this in school I had the child represent him or herself by finding images that showed the world who they were. Instead of the word "DAD" you may change this lesson and use their name to make it an any day art lesson and not strictly a Father's Day present. I taught this to second grade students.

What you need:

• Magazines, local ads, photographs, tickets, etc.- anything that represents dad. *Special note: I strongly advise pre-looking through magazines and such for inappropriate content.
• 3 sheets of 9x12" black paper
• Glue 
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Optional: Letter Stencils

What you do:
1. Discuss with your child (students) the term collage and the artists that are most noted for this type of art.

2. Then have them think of their dad. If the children are older have them write down some ideas on what represents their father. Ask "What does he like to do?" "What are his hobbies" "Does he have a favorite food?" So on and so forth.

3. Look through photographs, magazine clippings and anything else that they have prepared to visually represent dad.

4. Cut out the items and glue them onto the black piece of paper, making sure that each image or item slightly overlaps the next.

5. Continue to work until no black paper is showing.

6. Using a separate black sheet of paper and letter stencils (if provided) trace and cut out the word DAD. (You may choose DADDY, FATHER, etc. as well). Depending on the age of the child, extra help may be needed.

7. Glue on top of the collage.

DAD Letters on collage

8. Trim 1/2" around the entire collage and glue on to a separate black sheet of 9x12" paper.

9. Frame and give as a gift.

Vocabulary: collage, overlap, artist




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