Eric Carle Collage Butterfly

My collage butterfly came from the story Very Hungry Caterpillar. In creating my butterfly I drew the butterfly that I wanted to create. I then chose the side of my butterfly that I liked best so the other side could be symmetrical. I then gathered the different kind of collage paper that I wanted my butterfly to be made out of. I cut one piece of the butterfly out at a time and then traced it on the collage paper and then flipped it and traced it again so each piece would be the exact same size. After I had all the pieces traced and cut out I selected the color of background paper I wanted. I carefully placed each piece on the paper and glued them down individually. I didn't necessarily find any new discoveries during this project but there would be many different ways to create each butterfly. I would have my students create whatever kind of butterfly they would like either using patterns or making the butterfly symmetric. This is a good way of letting the students be creative and use their imagination and a good art project to tie in with a math lesson learning about symmetry or pattern. Another extension of this lesson could be to have a thematic unit on insects and having each student pick a different insect and create them using the collage technique.