How to make a collage Koala

The boys and I have been experimenting with different art techniques recently and we are really enjoying collage.  Collage is an art technique whereby different materials are glued to create an image.

We decided to use the collage technique to create a koala out of newspaper.  This provided a great opportunity to also learn about this unique Australian animal.  The boys learnt to identify the parts of a koala being it’s head, nose, big ears, furry arms, legs and sharp claws.  We discussed what each body part was for and in particular the koala’s arms and legs are strong for wrapping around trees and the sharp claws were to hold onto it’s tree perch.  I introduced the new words “habitat” and “marsupial” to the boys. The koala’s habitat is trees and marsupial means the koala carries it’s baby in a pouch. This turned out to be a great lesson in animal science!

Crafting a koala using the collage technique is really simple and fun – we even gave our Koala a name… Kim!  We chose newspapers because its grey, black and white colours are the colours of a koala’s fur. We also use a toilet roll to make the koala’s nose.  This is a great way to recycle and reuse materials that would otherwise be thrown away.

This craft provides a lot of motor development activities that is great for strengthening finger muscles in young children.  Tearing the newspaper for this craft is a fun activity that all children will enjoy because it is usually an off limits activity (imagine the horror of torn library books!).  There is also paper scrunching and gluing steps in this craft all of which contribute to strengthen hand muscles – an important precursor to handwriting.

Have fun crafting your own Kim the Collage Koala!

• 2 x white paper plates
• Newspaper scraps
• Toilet roll
• Googly eyes

• To make Kim the Collage Koala’s fur, splatter black paint onto newspaper.  Rip the painted newspaper into strips and a few into rough circle shapes.
• To make koala’s face, glue the newspaper strips onto a paper plate.
• To make koala’s ears, cut 2 circles out of the second paper plate. Scrunch up the newspaper circles and glue onto the outer edge of ears.  Glue the ears onto the top of koala’s face.
• To make Kim the Koala’s nose, cut toilet roll in half length wise and paint black.  Glue nose onto koala’s face.
• Glue on googly eyes onto koala’s face.

* This post and all associated images have been supplied by the lovely Rossa from Curious Little People.  Follow her on Instagram for more creative inspirations!