Resources for Texture Animal Collages

The June Box & Insider’s Club Project is Texture Fun! Kids will learn about texture: both real texture that they can feel, and visual texture. They’ll make texture rubbings using texture plates and oil pastels and then turn them into collages. The book (included in the box & suggested for Insider's Club Members) is Actual Size by Steve Jenkins.

Here's a read-aloud we found of the book, Actual Size. All of the illustrations are collages made from textured papers!

Watch The Video

Setting the Stage

Texture is how a surface feels, like smooth, rough, bumpy, slimy! Sandpaper is rough. Marble is smooth.

Texture can be real texture, that you can FEEL. Or it can be visual texture. Visual texture makes your brain think that it should feel rough or smooth or bumpy if you touched it. It’s kind of an illusion that is often used in art! We're going to do texture rubbings of real texture that you can feel to create visual texture.

Supplies Needed for Insider's Club Members (or if you're a box subscriber & want to purchase additional supplies)

•Recommended Book (optional): Actual Size by Steve Jenkins

•White drawing paper sheets for your rubbings. Paper for the rubbings shouldn’t be really thick because you want the paper to conform to the texture you’re doing the rubbing of.

•Construction paper (we used gray), cardstock, or any heavier paper - this will be the base you’ll be glueing your collage onto

•Glue Sticks

•Scissors

•Oil Pastels or Crayons. If you use crayons, the thicker the better. We love these chunky Crayola oil pastels.

•Animal Texture Rubbing Plates OR surfaces with texture like corrugated cardboard, sandpaper, mesh material, wicker furniture, coins, bumpy cookie sheets, …. 

*The links above are Amazon affiliate links. We receive a very very small commission if you purchase through them (which we hope you will if you purchase supplies!) They do NOT affect your price at all!

Images of Collage for Inspiration

Below are some inks to black & white illustrations of a few animals. You can look at them to get ideas and see the major shapes in each one. If you need additional help, you can even download them, print them out, cut them out, and trace the shapes onto your texture rubbings.

•Tiger
•Snail
•Ladybug
•Dragonfly
•Beetle
•Elephant
•Quail
•Magpie
•Bird With Open Wings

Taking It Further

Additional Ideas For Where to Find Texture:

•sandpaper
•rough (ish) wood furniture, floors, railings...
•graters (be careful if they are sharp)
•bumpy pans or cookie sheets
•concrete or slate
•wire mesh like in screens
•bubble wrap
•corrugated cardboard if you can see the corrugations
•tree barkwicker
•what else can you find?

About the Insider’s Club