Later in his life, French artist Henri Matisse became famous for brightly colored collages of paper, and it was often said that he “painted” with his scissors. You can see an example of one of the collages at the Louvre here, or you can see more in this article.
After reading Henri’s Scissors by Jeannette Winter (or read it here on OpenLibrary) or The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse by Patrician MacLachlan (or read it here on OpenLibrary), let’s make our own Matisse-inspired collage with the instructions and printable template below.
What you need:
- paper + access to a printer (don’t have one? we like this model)
- our Matisse shapes template
- cardstock
- glue
What to do:
Begin by printing our Matisse shapes template onto colorful cardstock.
Next, let your child cut out the shapes (or cut them for a younger child).
Have your child arrange the shapes as desired into a collage on another piece of cardstock. They can either arrange at random, or you can see if they want to try to create a picture with the collaged pieces. They may even want to create a story around their art!
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