Visual & Performing Arts · 1st Grade

Active learning ideas

Creating Texture through Collage

Collage lets first graders explore texture with their hands and eyes at the same time, making abstract art concepts feel concrete. When students feel rough sandpaper alongside smooth fabric, they build vocabulary and confidence that translates directly into their own compositions.

• Common Core State Standards
• NCAS: Creating VA.Cr1.2.1
• NCAS: Connecting VA.Cn10.1.1

• 20–45 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Outdoor Investigation Session
• 20 min · Small Groups

Texture Sort: Feel and Classify

Fill small bags with material samples (rough sandpaper, smooth foil, bumpy bubble wrap, soft felt, ridged corrugated board). In small groups, students feel each sample without looking, describe the texture using words, and sort them into categories they create themselves. Groups share their categories with the class.

Compare the tactile qualities of different materials used in a collage.

Facilitation Tip

For Texture Sort, place all materials in a central basket so students can handle each one before sorting.

What to look for

Provide students with a small piece of paper. Ask them to draw a simple object and then add at least two different textures to it using only lines and dots, representing implied texture. They should label one texture as 'smooth' or 'bumpy'.

• Remember
• Understand
• Analyze
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness
• Decision-Making

Activity 02

• Outdoor Investigation Session
• 45 min · Individual

Studio Challenge: Emotion Collage

Students choose a feeling word (calm, excited, rough, cozy) and select materials from the texture library that match that feeling. They assemble a collage, then do a class display where peers identify the emotion they sense from the textures before reading the artist's intended word.

Design a collage that communicates a specific feeling through its textures.

Facilitation Tip

During the Emotion Collage challenge, remind students to plan their focal texture first before gluing anything down.

What to look for

Display a finished collage. Ask students: 'Point to one area that has a tactile texture. What material is it? How does it feel? Now, point to an area that uses implied texture. How does the artist make it look like it feels a certain way?'

• Remember
• Understand
• Analyze
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness
• Decision-Making

Activity 03

• Think-Pair-Share
• 20 min · Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: Real vs. Implied Texture

Show side-by-side comparisons: a real collage with textured fabric versus a drawing using repeated marks to suggest texture. Ask students to discuss with a partner what is different about touching the first versus looking at the second. Share observations whole class and introduce the term implied texture.

Explain how an artist can create implied texture using only flat paper.

Facilitation Tip

In the Think-Pair-Share, provide sentence stems like ‘This feels ____ because ____’ to scaffold vocabulary.

What to look for

After students complete their collages, have them pair up. Each student will point to one part of their partner's collage and state whether the texture is tactile or implied, and describe how it feels or looks like it feels. The partner can agree or offer a different observation.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

Activity 04

• Gallery Walk
• 25 min · Whole Class

Gallery Walk: Peer Texture Critique

After completing collages, students post them and move through the gallery with sticky notes. For each collage they stop at, they write one texture word they see and one texture word they imagine feeling. Authors compare what they intended versus what viewers perceived.

Compare the tactile qualities of different materials used in a collage.

Facilitation Tip

For the Gallery Walk, assign each student one texture type to look for and report back.

What to look for

Provide students with a small piece of paper. Ask them to draw a simple object and then add at least two different textures to it using only lines and dots, representing implied texture. They should label one texture as 'smooth' or 'bumpy'.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Create
• Relationship Skills
• Social Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Start with tactile materials first so students build a physical memory of texture before moving to implied texture. Use contrast—place a real pinecone next to a drawn pinecone—to make the difference between real and represented texture obvious. Avoid rushing to the final product; spend time on language development by asking students to describe textures in pairs before they start composing.

Students will confidently name tactile and implied textures, choose materials for specific effects, and explain their choices using art language. Their collages will show intentional use of texture rather than random layering.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Texture Sort, watch for students who sort only by color or size rather than actual texture.

  Have students close their eyes while feeling each material, then describe it aloud before sorting. Ask, ‘Does it feel rough, bumpy, smooth, or soft?’ to redirect attention to texture quality.

• During Studio Challenge: Emotion Collage, watch for students who use many materials without purpose.

  Ask students to sketch their intended emotion and label one area where they will use tactile texture and one where they will use implied texture before selecting materials.

• During Think-Pair-Share: Real vs. Implied Texture, watch for students who claim all texture in art must be touchable.

  Provide a printed drawing of a fluffy cloud next to a piece of cotton. Ask students to describe how each suggests texture without being physically touchable.

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Methods used in this brief

• Outdoor Investigation Session
• Think-Pair-Share
• Gallery Walk