Show samples of Matisse's work (or better yet find a Powerpoint!) and explain his emphasis on shapes. Sometimes it is easy to imagine what he is portraying and sometimes it really stretches the imagination. Matisse worked at a time when he didn't have access to all the many kinds of colored papers that we have today. He had to paint some of the paper to get the colors he wanted. So will the students. At least one of the colors of paper used on the project must be made by mixing acrylic paint.

Before they begin any cutting and gluing, they need to plan their project in three parts: Background, middle ground, and foreground. It makes the gluing process so much easier if they get this organized in advance.

Helpful hint from the trenches: It is great that kids paint and mix colors, but they should keep it to a minimum. They can waste a lot of time and paint without getting much work done. And, when students do paint some paper, be sure they first put their name and class on the back of the paper.

More Helpful hints: If students want great detail in their work (and I always hope they do) gluing little pieces can be a challenge. I find it works best to squirt a little bit of glue on a piece of scrap paper. Then, dip the point of an exacto knife, sharpened pencil or paper clip into the glue. It helps to get a small amount of glue in just the right place.

And even more Helpful hints: Most of the paper in this project is from recycled paper. Whenever my students cut out anything, the scraps are saved. I use the boxes that photocopy paper comes in. One box for each color of recycled paper. I also use scraps of paper and the paper maché solution to completely cover each box.

Copyright 2000, revised 2012 by Phillip Martin All rights reserved.