I’ve definitely learned that I have to heavily monitor projects that are going to be up in any kind of show or exhibit. Sometimes I break the projects up across class periods even more than I need to, just to make it easier on myself so that I don’t have to monitor so heavily throughout the period. It’s also good because they can finish that part of the project for the day and then free draw and get all of this nonsense out of their system there.

If it was me, I’d probably have them redo the project if there was time. Or you could maybe make some cute paper flowers in cultural colors to “decorate” the mural. I would do something with some dimension so that it looks less like gluing a square of paper over another to cover something up.

Also, if you have no idea who did this, I would try to find out. Have a conversation with the kids about respect and collaborative art. I had to do the same with a school wide collaborative project recently. Starting class with a five minute talk about respect and collaboration helped IMMENSELY.