Engaging students in map art collaging: A peek at the process this week.
This month, I’ve been working on a ‘Where I Live’ learning module that I have been developing for grades 1-3 at the Polish primary bilingual school where I began working earlier this month as Native English-speaking language teacher.
As part of the ‘My City’ activities, I’ve introduced the classes to ‘map art collaging’. For many of them, it was their first time holding a paper map as well as the first time doing art collaging!
I know many art teachers still do collaging, but in this digital era, I also know that kids aren’t always engaged in such activities. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, I regularly collaged at home and in school, all the way through my high school years, when collaging was a crucial ritual in my Creative Writing classes.
The collage for my classes will be part of a stack of learning and creative activities they worked on this month in class with me that will go into a hand-crafted book they put together at the end of the month, reflecting all their October activity in class with me.
The collages the kids have been producing are really neat, and I also really enjoyed seeing how each class and grade engaged with and processed the activity. I really enjoyed and valued seeing them settle into the activity, study, and explore the map, and make creative collages with it. There’s a lot of heart for Radom in these collages!
I notified parents about the activity, and some kids also brought additional print material- brochures, maps, postcards, and more, all to contribute to their fun exploring and clipping up to add to their collages! 
I ultimately envision a curriculum for kids that could be completely framed around the city they live in, using the setting and lens of the local environment for different lessons and community-engaged learning.
Thanks to the Radom Tourism Information Center for providing these maps!
I teach one after-school class per week with the theme ‘Around the World’. This month, we begin our journey right here in Radom, Poland, and the students were positively immersed in the paper maps! 
~Annika
