Room-size and storage constraints limited the amount of three-dimensional work I could have the students produce, but I was searching for an idea that would be a 3D project I could store, and these pizza slices were the perfect inspiration. I introduced 2nd grade to the artist, Claes Oldenburg because of his grand-scale sculptures of everyday objects.. I found that students at this age get interested in art that is recognizable and covers topics they relate to, such as food. Pizza is the universal food of choice--these kids reminded me every Wednesday that it was pizza day, so I decided that we should make our own. This was the last lesson I would teach these kids, as the semester was ending soon, so I am grateful for those early finishers that allowed me to snap a pic of their pizzas before I had to go.
Materials: brown paper lunch bags (2 per student), red tempera, construction paper, scissors, glue, stapler, colored pencils, crayons, pencils, filler (We used scrap paper leftover from previous lessons this semester--brown paper lunch bags made the best scrap material for filler).
This one understood realism and opted to cover his slice with individual cheese shreds rather than one big cheese blob--although, either option was fine.
Cheese blob, with added cheese shreds for details.
Supreme pizza, anyone? This student was focused on detail and cut out tiny, tiny, toppings because "she didn't like it when they were chunky."
Cheese pizza all around.
More cheese shred details to the cheese blob.