Everyone in your class contributes to this activity! Our second BIG IDEA feature post will show you how to make this amazing classroom mosaic mural.

The best part about this activity is that it involves everyone to help sort the mosaics by color, divide up color-coded sections of the mural paper, then paste the sorted mosaic pieces into their appropriate areas. This activity can take as long as you wish–it entirely depends on your preference. If you want students to gradually add to the mosaic throughout the year, set aside a certain area in your classroom specifically for this activity, or else divide your students into groups or “teams” that take turns working on various sections of the mural. Your students will spend time learning color gradations, building sorting skills and enjoying working with their peers to create this display piece for the classroom, your homeroom or to decorate your school’s display walls!

Duration: 1 hour or spread over a span of several days.

Age: 5-11

You’ll need:

• R15630 Double Color Mosaic Squares

• R15649 Petit Pattern Mosaics

• Glue and tape

• Markers and pencil crayons

• 3-4 sheets of Bristol® paper

If you choose to use large Bristol® paper, be sure to use the unglossy side as the side you’ll use to paste the mosaic pieces onto. Line up the sheets of paper edge-to-edge and secure with tape.

For this activity, I placed a variety of mosaics into classroom bowls. Your students can fine sort all the mosaics by color into the bowls. You can talk about the different kinds of names for each color (i.e. distinguish between rose-red and maroon) or simply focus on making distinctions between each type of color mosaic.

Tape down the mural onto a large flat surface. TIP: Use painter’s tape! This helps keep the paper from tearing. As your students work on the mural, they will be prevented from accidentally turning up any corners or shifting the project over.

Our mosaics fit into a general color scheme of about 6 colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet). More advanced grades can even distinguish the tints (lighter gradations of a color) and shades (darker gradations of a color) within each color. Be sure to separate the mural work space into as many sections as needed. Above, I’ve drawn squiggles to separate the areas, but you can experiment with jagged edges, straight lines, or other ways to divide the colors up (let me know if you do)!

Older grades can skip this step, but younger grades may need some help keeping track of which color mosaics go in certain sections, especially if they are learning the colors of the rainbow for the first time. Color in each section of the mural with a marker or pencil crayon that represents the color you want to go in that section. Of course, if you’re feeling adventurous and want your students to think of different ways to arrange the colors, let them arrange the colors randomly without guides! This might turn out way more interesting!

Place the bowls of sorted mosaics into the appropriate areas so that students can work on any area they wish.

CLICK on the awesome time-lapse video below for a larger view!

What do you think? Pretty cool! This colored mosaic mural can even serve as a background for your school name, a favorite team or as a classroom banner.

Did you make your own version of the mosaic mural? We’d love to see it! Send your photos, comments or questions to us. Contact us through the contact form. Can’t wait to hear from you!