Collaging Sketchbook Covers

5th through 8th graders received sketchbooks at the beginning of the year that are theirs to use in art class. These sketchbooks are theirs to keep, and I encourage all of my students to take their books home and draw, write, collage and collect anything in them that they would like to. 
The students are responsible for bringing them back to class each week, and they get points for doing so towards their grade. 
It is my hope that this group of older students will become accustomed to working in their sketchbooks independently, and it will be a positive habit that they continue as adults.

The art room at Coonley is loosely organized into "studios", which are specific spaces in the art room where you can find the supplies needed to create that particular art form. I wanted the students to explore the collage studio, and learn what materials were available to them. 


We first discussed the word collage as a group, and I shared the meaning of the word in French, which is "to glue or to paste". We then looked at examples of collages by the artist Romare Bearden. Then students came up with a working definition of collage, and we briefly discussed why artists might choose to work in collage as their favorite medium. I taught everyone how to glue using brush-on Elmer's glue so that no glue drips would end up on the table.

Students gathered materials to use in a cover collage, and stored them in their sketchbook.

Next, the 5th-8th grades worked for two-three class periods on first collecting material that they wanted to use as their sketchbook cover, followed by collaging it onto their book so that their sketchbook was more unique and personal to who they are as an individual. 

Many students feel more comfortable drawing than collaging. This student, Jerry, chose to mediate that by creating a drawing of a familiar subject and then cutting it up and pasting it together again.

I will gather some more pictures of the collaged sketchbook covers soon.   The students only complaint that I heard was that we need more magazines that are  hip and filled with Justin Biber!