In our play-based classes (for ages 3 – 8), we offer a collage art activity called Creation Station. In our art classroom, it is set up and available every single week. At preschool, we do it for a few weeks each quarter. Creation Station is a completely free choice activity. We offer cardboard squares, glue, and bits to glue on, and from there, it’s totally up to them what they create!

Here are some samples from a St. Patrick’s themed station:

Parents tend to look at the final products with a bit of dismay – “what am I supposed to do with that???” They are not beautiful artworks!

But, they are the unique creation of the child. And children love having complete artistic freedom, and the chance to create anything they want with the materials available. When you’re young, just being able to create a tangible expression of your own ideas is very empowering.

Some will tell a whole artitistic vision story about what they have created: “the princess has a treasure, and she built this beautiful box for it, and here is her crown…” Some just enjoy the process and adding whatever they feel like adding next.

Supplies

All you need are:

• squares of cardboard – anywhere from 4 by 4 inches to maybe 6 x 8 – you can cut up shipping boxes like from Amazon, or I often use lighter weight cardboard like cereal boxes or cracker boxes
• puffy glue – mix 1 part shaving cream with 2 parts school glue. If you want to color it, you can use powdered tempera paint to do so. Liquid watercolor will make it gooey. (Note: there is one brand of glue – we think it was Colorations – that when you mixed it with shaving cream it turned into slime. We haven’t had this happen with any other brand. Usually it turns into puffy stuff that looks mostly like shaving cream.)
• you can use paint brushes or popsicle sticks to spread the glue on the cardboard
• optional glitter – we no longer buy glitter, because of the mess and the environmental impact of micro-plastics. However, we have SO MUCH glitter from the past, we do put it out sometimes
• collage supplies, a.k.a. “stuff” or “bits and bobs” – a British phrase for miscellaneous objects – can be almost anything!! Some ideas:
  • small pieces of yarn, ribbon, fabric, pompoms
  • pasta in any shape (you can also color pasta or rice or dried chickpeas)
  • beads, buttons, craft “gems.”
  • Flat glass marbles (these are heavy so you need a heavier cardboard, and you may need pure glue (no shaving cream) to be strong enough for them to stick)
  • feathers, bits from nature: leaves, acorns, seashells, maple seeds, pinecones
  • foam letters and shapes, wood shapes, craft sticks
  • scraps of paper or tissue paper – this is where all the scraps leftover from other art projects end up!
  • mardi gras beads, christmas garlands or costume jewelry cut up
  • hardware bits: screws, washers, bolts, wires, electronic components, keys from old computer keyboards
  • things saved from trash / recycling: corks, plastic lids, TP tubes, plastic straws (run them through the dishwasher after use – they won’t melt, I promise!), packing peanuts, bubble wrap, small cardboard boxes
  • dumb little toys like the “erasers” you get in goodie bags at parties
• sometimes instead of independent projects, we’ll do a group collage where we build a cardboard building and kids decorate it together like this giant “gingerbread house” made with boxes, puffy glue, candy and graham crackers – did I mention the results might not be pretty?

In the pictures you see below, you’ll see LOTS of bits and bobs that we have collected over time – you can do this project with just a couple of types of items, so don’t be afraid to start with just any items you have on hand.

Set-Up

For an occasional activity at preschool, we put two tables together, cover them with paper, and put out a basket of cardboard, some glue and a few bowls of “stuff.” (Note: in this picture, you see a creation station variant. Instead of offering cardboard squares and puffy glue, we had metal lids filled with playdough that they could push their collage items into.)

At our art classroom, we have a dedicated table that has been used for years – we just scrape the big hunks of dry glue off every week and start again.

And on both sides of the table, there are shelves fully stocked with all sorts of fun bits and bobs.

They have full access to whatever they want. (Although we do keep an eye on it, and if someone is being excessive / extreme, we ask them to use less so that there is enough for other people to share.)

Themes or Prompts

Usually, this is totally free thinking zone – they make anything they want to. But sometimes we theme it. Like we might offer all green items for St. Patricks, or red and white for Valentine’s. Or when we were making “pet rocks” they made nests for them. When we were learning about building houses, we encouraged them to make furniture. On cardboard car week, they are encouraged to grab decor from Creation Station.

Here we made “Elsa’s castle”. I covered a box and paper towel tubes with foil, and offered puffy paint “snow”, silver, white and blue Mardi gras beads and gems to decorate with.

Here are some more samples. These are group collages. When we do nature hikes, we gather items for a nature collage.

For Ages 5 and Up

Older kids love this as much as younger ones. But what they create from the same materials is more sophisticated. For example, once we were learning about bugs / insects in class, and we just had our usual Creation Station stuff out. One child decided to create a bug zoo at Creatio Station, with a bead caterpillar on a “log”, and spiders and milipedes from electronic components.

You can also encourage more structural building by offering cardboard strips, fasteners like tape or brads or a stapler, hole punches and scissors.

We have a ChompSaw (that’s an Amazon affiliate link), which is sort of a jigsaw for cardboard, and let them cut their own shapes. I love this tool, because you can cut out almost any shape you want, and the lines (on thin cardboard) are as nice as if an adult cut with scissors. I have literally TRIED to hurt myself with this, and couldn’t find any possible way someone would get hurt using it.

What do you do with the products??

Parents of young children sometimes feel like they are supposed to keep all their children’s artworks for posterity. Children who create products often have very strong feelings in the moment about keeping them. I do have lots of advice in this post for deciding what artwork to keep, and how to store it.

But Creation Station products are a good chance to learn to let go. To remember that some things are about the process, not the product, so you don’t have to keep the product. When we make a really cool playdough sculpture, we admire it, then wad it up into a playdough ball again. In the sensory table, we might fill up containers and be proud of the accomplishment, but then they get dumped out again, and that’s OK. For Creation Station products, it is fine to admire them and then drop them in the trash. Or, to teach your child the idea of “we can take a picture of that, and save a collection of photos of all your art projects, and then it’s OK to let the product go.”