August Is Imagination and Mixed Media Month!

What does a perfect day look like for you? Perhaps you envision yourself hiking through the great outdoors, or curled up under a blanket on the couch watching movies, or exploring every alley and storefront in an exciting new locale. Maybe you’re alone on a breezy porch reading a book. Maybe you’re headed for the nearest pond, fishing pole on your shoulder.

August is Imagination and Mixed Media Month here at Arts For Life! In this Perfect Day Collage Lesson, Arts For Life teachers ask kids to imagine a perfect day in their lives.

Six-year-old Journi (pictured above), an Arts For Life student at Levine Children’s Hospital, says that she would be at home during her perfect day, playing with her cousins under the watchful eyes of her auntie and grandmother. A long hospital stay has kept her away from home, and she has missed her cousins a lot. So, in her artwork, she created her house and covered it in hearts and flowers—each one representing a member of her family.

A perfect day for any Arts For Life teacher involves art supplies, fresh ideas, and lots of creative energy. And the open-ended theme of imagination provides the perfect backdrop for all of these things. Long a favorite of teachers, the imagination theme lends itself to a wide, enticing variety of lesson plans, from Friendly/Ferocious Fish to Imaginary Paper Tube Creatures. Add in the mixed media element (basically a catch-all category meaning “any cool material that you feel like using for an art project”) and what you get is, well, some very cool artwork!

Take Ayden’s “Friendly/Ferocious Fish”—innocent and unassuming when folded…

…yet fearsome and menacing when opened!

And, check out these adventurous cats from Julia!

In no uncertain terms, if kids can think of it, Arts For Life teachers can help them make it! This month, we’re celebrating just that.