This weekend the children have been creating their own collages. I must admit, I’ve been shying away from collages a bit recently- as they bring with them sticky fingers, spilt sequins and a lot of mess!
But I decided to put my fears of mess to one side and we got out the sequins, the Pom Poms, the pipe cleaners and feathers again and…it was brilliant! There was mess..but I had forgotten how much FUN collages are for children and the incredible array of skills they are learning when making a collage.
What skills can children develop?
- Fine Motor Skills– There’s numerous opportunities when creating a Collage for children to develop their Fine Motor Skills, working the tiny muscles in their fingers and hands that are needed for important tasks like to learning to write (find out more about Fine Motor Skills here). Picking up small objects such as sequins/pom poms/pipe cleaners, squeezing the glue and putting the materials onto the paper-all require their Fine Motor Skills.
- Creativity- Collages really fuel creativity and imagination, as they can be anything. We created everything from snails and fish to cars!
- Speech and Language Skills– The children were so chatty when creating their collages, and it was no wonder- there’s so much to talk about: new textures, sparkling sequins, sticky glue, soft feathers, colourful jewels, bendy pipe cleaners. A fantastic activity to encourage children to develop their descriptive language.
- Scissor Skills– Collages also provide a great opportunity for younger children to practise scissor skills under supervision. With help and the correct equipment, they can cut out pieces of paper, tissue paper etc to place on their Collage.
Sensory activity– developing skills aren’t the only benefit of collages for children. Making collages (and playing with collage materials) can be a wonderful sensory experience for a lot of children, with the bright colours, sparkles and different textures.
(*please remember a lot of Collage materials aren’t suitable for children under the age of 3 due to the risk of choking)
We were kindly sent the Collage Favourites Pack by Early Years Resources for this activity. We adored the range and quality of their materials that provide children with the opportunity to develop all these skills.
Their colourful, brilliant pack includes: pom poms, pipe cleaners, lolly sticks, googly eyes, coloured wooden matchsticks, tree slices, sequins, jewels, feathers and paper plates.
Their pack makes collaging really easy. The googly eyes and jewels , for example, have self adhesive backs. And the sequins are in a plastic jar with a screw lid, reducing the risk of spillages.
They have also separated out the materials into smaller bags so that you don’t have to get them all out in one go and can easily share between groups of children.
I found, these little things to make a big difference to setting up and being able to enjoy messy crafts with the kids.
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Blissful Domestication
The SEN Resources Blog 
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