Name Resist Painting Collages by Pre-K

My pre-K students created these amazing name resist paintings. This lesson was not only good practice for them to write their names, but it also taught a very important art skill--drawing with a BIG hand!

I read them this delightful book called Lilman Makes a Name for Himself by the artist Caleb Neelon. In the story, the purple monster Lilman makes a giant name collage and takes it to school. He creates the collage because he says the letters in his name don't mean him and the things he loves. So he then glues all of them to his letters--his favorite food, rice and beans, feathers, pieces of cloth in the pattern of his Mom's favorite dress. It is really an adorable book and wonderfully illustrated. 

Materials Needed:

tempera cakes

oil pastels

permanent markers

all purpose glue

collage materials

sulphite paper

large scrap paper

Procedure:

My students practiced writing their name on large pieces of practice paper before I had them do the final giant name in oil pastels. They layered colors one on top of the other to create rainbow letters. I then showed them how to paint stripes of color on their letters, encouraging them to use a different color for each letter. Finally, when dry, students glued on some sparkles, shiny paper, feathers, buttons, etc. They had so much fun with this project!