Greenhill Second-Graders Create Collages of American Flags

Greenhill second grade students are creating collages of American flags. Lower School art teacher Mary Aidala has led this project for more than 10 years and says it allows students to experience a variety of methods in creating one group piece.“Each second grade class makes an American flag collage using pieces of art created by individual students,” she said. “They use techniques like painting and drawing, and they use different mediums from chalk to recycled paper.”Mary is passionate about re-using materials in the classroom which is why the project begins with old newspaper. “Using recycled materials allows the students to understand texture and they see that we do not have to start each piece of art on pristine white paper with straight edges.”Students work individually at stations to create the stripes and stars using scraps of colored paper and various mediums, and then they gather as a group to piece the flag together almost like a puzzle.“If we wanted a uniform look, we would just print the stars and cut them out,” Mary says. “We use many different skills for a collage. Students can see that their style of creating art may be different from someone else, but all of their contributions are included and they see a beautiful finished product.”The flags will be displayed in the second grade classrooms. If you are in the Lower School, you can see a flag created several years ago displayed in Mary’s art classroom.CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTO GALLERY