I sometimes end the year with a cooperative poster project. It is a flexible activity that fits well with the odd schedules, interruptions, and make-up work that are unavoidable at the end of the year. Students who are done with their primary work move on to the coop poster while the others catch up. Some students have time to do several tiles while others only have time for very few. My first choice is to provide a drawing grid in which the students are required to draw the tiles before coloring them. I supply a cart with various materials that the students are familiar with to use on the tiles.
For assembling the tiles into the final artwork, I prefer to create a large grid framework on kraft paper. This particular grid is four foot wide and five foot tall. The tiles are six inches. I hang the paper in the hall outside my classroom where there just happens to be six inch tiles on the wall…so it makes creating the grid in chalk just a little easier. I use double-stick tape behind the corners of the tiles to stick them down. I typically tape the top corners only in case I need to change one out. When complete, I have a student add tape to the lower corners. If I begin assembling some of the tiles in the classroom as they complete them, the students get more involved. I tell them that I will choose the best tiles for the image since I am having multiple of the tiles drawn and colored by several classes. Tiles that are too faint, for example, will eventually be replaced by more suitable ones. If they want to see their tile appear in the image, they have to put in the effort.
If there is still time left when a grid is completed, we simply begin a new one…possibly with a different image. If less time is available, we complete a coloring grid. This variety is pre-printed with the outlines and the students are only required to color the tiles.
