If there is one thing preschool teachers have mastered is the art of hoarding materials to repurpose for STEAM invitations. Assemblage is the art of assembling materials together from objects, in this case recycled materials. The materials are used to make 3-dimensional art and often involves building, collaging, exploring, and creating sculptures.
For this invitation we used recycled plastic cups, paper rolls, containers + their lids, and craft sticks. Some other options could be balloons, bottles, cardboard, bottle caps, cans, bubble wrap, and more. You can either glue the items with a hot glue gun (supervised of course) or school glue. Provide tempera paint and let them create!
As they combine various materials together to explore the concept of assemblage art they are: comparing items (shapes, textures, lines, height/width, size), negative space, spatial awareness, cognitive thinking, communication/collaboration, gravity + viscosity, fine + gross motor skills, hand eye coordination, all while empowering their creativity throughout the whole process.
Invitations such as this opens a child's mind to the many ways of creating art. When children learn about diverse types of art the more well rounded and creative they become. Art is a fundamental component of early childhood education therefore continuous exposure leads to seeing the world in different ways and learning about all the beautiful forms of art.
