Snow had just fallen last week so snow crafts was on my mind when I went to teach art in the local school that I teach in. What better idea then to do a ton paper collage using the snow as the theme.
The children had a choice of blue or black for their backgrounds. Most chose blue.
I then gave them white, yellow, red and turquoise papers to use to rip. (and glue of course)I tend to stick with Construction Paper 
This was obviously the first time the children had a lesson like this. I told them that they could make a snow picture (which automatically translates into snowmen pictures) but, they could not use scissors.
There was a great deal of consternation as to how they would get what they needed by ripping. I discussed with them the things they might want to put into their pictures and they all just jumped in. It was amazing how they went from “we can’t do this, to total immersion”.
I’ve had posts on ideas like this before and I have a bulletin board in a picture in my winter crafts for kids post that has this style of art along with another post on torn paper art that gives many more instances of what you can do with torn paper collages.
This was the first time in a long time that I did this with such a large group of children.
Out of 21 kindergarten age children most of them made recognizable snowmen, house, skies and such in their artwork.
The child who made the picture below was one of about 3 that was unable to make anything that looked remotely like the task given to them After showing the principal these pictures she indicated that this child was having learning issues and they were trying to get her tested but, the mother was resisting. She took pictures of the different artwork to show the mother what should be expected at this age.
I also showed her another child’s picture who had been very anxious about getting it “right”. “Oh, that child” she said “she takes art classes”. So much for teaching kids creativity and self confidence in art class.
After they were done gluing I gave them the white sticks  from a pack of  Oil Pastels 
This child (the image below) always creates way above her age level and spent much time on the details of her picture.
As I have repeated many times, when you allow the children creative crafts and real art, they truly get to use their thinking skills and you also get to see who is age level and who isn’t.
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