Vancouver Cityscapes

My Grade One class created these beautiful cityscape collages of Vancouver, BC.  We were inspired by a local artist named Nicholas Brancati.  He is an illustrator who creates mixed-media collage illustrations and art using bits and pieces of fabric, paper, packaging, magazine, newspaper, cardboard and various other materials.  You cans find more of his amazing work on his Etsy Shop page.

I used one of the prints I purchased from him at the Vancouver Make It Market last year for our inspiration.  My students all immediately recognized our famous Vancouver landmark, Science World, and were eager to create their own versions. Unfortunately I no longer see this particular print on his website.  But here are a few close-ups of what we were able to create.:

Our evening art contains buildings created in cool colored construction paper.  However, this would be just as effective in bright primary and secondary colors as well. 

Winter Birds

Here is an adorable winter collage activity my Grade Ones did with the help of our Big Buddy class.  You can find all the instructions, including printable templates, at

 I HEART CRAFTY THINGS.

I HEART CRAFTY THINGS provides two versions for templates to create the birds.  One has the birds in one piece (other than the beak) and the other has them in multiple pieces.  We used the multiple pieces version here.  Putting all the bird pieces together would have been way too difficult for my little ones with the help of their Big Buddies.  If you try this with a younger class I would highly recommend using the simpler template.