Cardinal Collages Inspired by Charlie Harper

My students recently learned about the art of Charley Harper, his love of animals and nature, and the use of symmetry in his work. After looking at his artwork, and some photographs of cardinals in the wild, we set out to create our winter scenes. We cut and pasted colored construction paper, then used markers, crayons, white tempera paint, and glitter to complete our collages. We talked a lot about symmetry, as the shapes of our cardinals, bird baths, and leaves were created. The bright colors and winter theme were a big hit! The children had lots of choices throughout the lesson. They had a variety of background colors to select, and the choice to create a male or female cardinal. They could use a selection of templates for the cardinal and/or bird bath shapes, or they could fold and cut their own symmetrical designs.

Inspiration for this lesson came from Shine Bright Zamorano, one of my favorite Art Ed blogs!