1st Grade - Andy Warhol Soup Can's

I am sure that every art teacher has their favorite artist to study.   I do have many likes, but none hold the torch to my favorite, Mr. Andy Warhola.  So for the 4th and final quarter, I have decided to share him with many grades, partly because, hands down, I am obsessed, but because his artwork shows unity and variety perfectly!  For many grades, our curriculum leaves variety and unity, not to mention emphasis for the end of the year, so instead of dread these lovely, albeit sometimes difficult, concepts to teach, I choose to have fun and plus, talking about Andy and his crazy hair is always a fun classroom discussion!

When we start with the end in mind for our lessons, I have something like this imagined... (yes, our display will in fact be on a bulletin board, under less that fantastic lighting, however, I believe it will be very powerful!)

'Campbell's Soup Cans' by Andy Warhol, Museum of Modern Art, NY

I have my 1st graders twice a week for 30 minutes a pop, so my lessons are quick and effective.  Day 1 goes something like this.  Students walk in and sit down, we watch a couple clips from a movie on Andy Warhol...it is a cartoon and it explains Andy in his voice and with really funny puns...those are more for me.  I get a laugh, the students get a quick version of Andy in their terms, for the most part.  They are exposed to images of his artwork, a little history, and a cool story for them to associate with.  Then the real fun begins.  We do a step by step drawing of a cylinder.  Mind-blowing no, exciting for them, yes.  We add the can details such as, fancy "Campbells" lettering, the line (that looks like a smiley face) in the middle of the can, a circle for the symbol of flavor, the can texture lines at the top, the favor, (I let them choose from real flavors, no unicorn soup in this art offering!) and the word soup and fleur symbols (we used stars--much easier).  We started in pencil and then outlined in sharpie, the artroom's best friend.  Lovely sampling of Day 1.  

Day 2 looked and sounded something like this.  You have to paint the background yellow, but you can paint the soup can any colors you want.  In order to emphasis the concept of unity, I had them create a soup can that was similar, additionally, I had them paint the backgrounds yellow.  They had their choice on the rest of the colors to help them understand the concept of variety.  Not only was I super excited about this project because it was Andy Warhol, but the kids have enjoyed finding their artwork and celebrating their collaborative bulletin board together.  Here is the finished product.  I still have students that haven't finished, along with a small stack that won't fit on the wall.  I will fill up the rest of another bulletin board with the remaining.  I think Andy would approve.