Seeing The Art In The Everyday: Pop Art Paper Mache!
Help me give my students glue, paint, and paintbrushes to create Pop Art masterpieces!
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Purdy's classroom raised $481
This project is fully funded
My Project
Every school year, usually during the first day, my students point to the giant paper mache Pop art sculptures in my classroom, like the vibrant purple Takis or the cleverly constructed pint of Ben and Jerry's, and ask, "Ms. Purdy, when can we make those?" Pop art amazes them, but I find it amazing too- that an art movement that began 60 + years ago, celebrating the beauty of the common ordinary object, can grab their attention like few things do, yet still feels as fresh and relevant today.
Of course, it makes sense that my students, with their pulse on popular culture, are bedazzled by Pop Art, and literally CAN'T WAIT to create their own!
Truly, students get so excited just by trying to decide which beloved object from pop culture they will recreate! After brainstorming and discussion, they bring in their inspiration, like a label or tiny replica, and then they start to create a gigantic 3-D form of that object, using crumpled newspaper and masking tape to temporarily hold the shape. Next, they paper mache the sculpture with strips of newspaper, white paper and watered-down glue to make a permanent and hardened surface to draw on. The final step is painting, when the nondescript and bland paper blobs begin their transformation into carefully crafted and realistic sculptures of everyday objects, bursting with explosions of color-Pop Art!
My Design Crafts classroom has many hands-on and fun projects throughout the year. But I love that this one is a feat from beginning to end, employing 21st-century skills for my students, asking them to engage in a creative process of collaboration and communication with their peers, by building a giant sculpture together to make an original piece of art from a tiny object -remarkable!
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Purdy and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
