Rousseau Collages are Fierce!

The latest project I did with my elementary school students was based on Henri Rousseau's jungle paintings. They learned all about how Rousseau was self-taught and made his paintings of jungles without ever having visited one, but through visiting zoos, botanical gardens, and using his imagination. They saw how he filled up his canvases with a lot of imagery:

For homework the students needed to bring in pictures of animals that they wanted to portray. They had to cut out shapes to make their animals and plants, and were instructed not to rely on drawing for any of the details (although some could just not help themselves!). Once the project was nearing its end I brought in shiny colored paper for them to add details. I think some of them turned out pretty great!