Little Cherished Cherub Collages

Just let me say this turned out even better than it was in my head when I thought of it.  We have had millions of compliments and they are just as precious as they can be!  On top of that...the students had so much fun creating them!

Here is my lesson: 

We did an artist study on Michelangelo first.  We looked at various artworks and statues including David and Angel.  Then we were fascinated with the Vatican.  Since we completed this lesson and our upcoming study with the famous artist Raphael I decided to have my K-2 students create themselves as a Cherub.

       

Here are the steps:

1.  Separated my class in 2 groups.  One half had their photo shoot while the other half did their shaving cream art background.

Here is a great link from "A Place of Our Own" where she gives details for shaving cream art.  We did ours similar, but I liked how she described it.
Shaving Cream Art

For the photos we looked at the cherub art work and discussed 3 key tips for their photo shoot.  Where they should be looking, what their mouth should be doing and how they would place their arms.

  

 2.  The students cut out their photos and cut out wings to glue behind their photos.

3.  Last they attached their photos to the shaving cream background.  Priceless!

Supply List

Paper or cardstock Shaving cream (non-mentholated) Food coloring with eye droppers Pie tins

How-To

You can do this activity outdoors, but if you’re doing it inside, you may want to lay down a drop cloth to protect your floor and a tablecloth to protect your table. Prepare for the activity by placing an aluminum pie tin in front of each child. Give each child a blank piece of white paper or cardstock. Since the paper is going to get wet, cardstock tends to work better. Instruct the kids to place their piece of cardstock at the bottom of their pie tin. Have them use a can of shaving cream to cover their piece of cardstock with foam. (You may need to spray the foam for the young children.) Make sure the can of shaving cream is non-mentholated, so if any shaving cream gets in their eye, it won’t sting. If young ones are participating in the activity, watch out for them. They may want to put the foam in their mouth. While it won’t harm them, it’s not advisable. Have the children take eye droppers of different colors of food coloring and squeeze drops onto their shaving cream. Once they have squeezed different food coloring on their shaving cream, have them use their hands to start spreading the shaving cream around their piece of cardstock. After a little while, the food coloring combined with the shaving cream will begin to seep into the paper, creating a marble effect. Once the desired effect has been reached, brush off the extra shaving cream and let the paper or cardstock air dry. After it has dried, the marbleized paper can be the finished artwork, or it can be just the beginning of a continuing project. Kids can use the marble paper as their canvas to create additional artwork. Perhaps they can make a greeting card or they can attach a photo to it with the marble paper framing it.