Tar Beach

My classes will be doing a collage project based on the book, Tar Beach by Faith Ringold. It follows the 8 year old Cassie, as she lets the stars take her wherever she wants to go. She claims the buildings as her own as she hovers above New York City. I especially like this passage:

"anyone can fly. All you need is somewhere to go that you can't get to any other way. The next thing you know, you're flying among the stars."

To create our collages the children will first paint a base of deep blue for the nightime sky. Next using metallic gold or silver paint they will paint a simple bridge with white lights. Squares and rectangles of colored construction paper will act as buildings. Windows can be draw using permanent marker and oil pastel. Since the book was based on Ringold's story quilt, I will offer lots of different squares of scrapbook paper to create quilt-like borders. Lastly I will take a picture of each child to cut out so they can fly high among the stars above their city.