Pop-Art Heart Card

1. Organize a variety of text and electronic resources focused on pop artists. Invite students to discover famous abstract or pop artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Keith Haring. What did they do to ordinary things to give them a contemporary or abstract look? Sometimes the artists changed a shape or enlarged part of an object to make it look different or unique. Allow time for students to work individually or in small groups as they research these artists and their work.
2. Discuss findings with students. Ask them to attempt these techniques in designing a unique pop art card or poster. Create a heart card for Valentine’s Day or use any symbol you like for any holiday.
3. Students cover their work areas with recycled newspaper. Using Crayola Washable Paint, students cover one or two sheets of paper with red paint. Air-dry the paper.
4. Fold another piece of paper in half to make a card. To design the background, dab a wet sponge into Crayola Washable Watercolors. Lightly tap the sponge on the paper for a marbleized look. Air-dry the card.
5. Students use Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils or Color Sticks and their imaginations to draw a large contemporary-looking heart on the painted paper. Cut out the heart and strips for the card’s border with Crayola Scissors. Cut out the center of the heart. Attach the heart and border strips to the card with Crayola School Glue.
6. Cut out smaller contemporary-looking hearts from the painted paper or plain paper. Decorate them with Crayola Fine Tip Markers. Accentuate the hearts with Crayola Glitter Glue. Air-dry the hearts.
7. Glue hearts scattered around the card. Air-dry the glue.
8. Students compose a message on the outside and inside of their cards.

LA: Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

SS: Describe ways in which language, stories, folktales, music, and artistic creations serve as expressions of culture and influence behavior of people living in a particular culture.

SS: Use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools to generate, manipulate, and interpret information.

SS: Identify and describe ways family, groups, and community influence the individual's daily life and personal choices.

VA: Select media, techniques, an processes; analyze what makes them effective or not effective in communicating ideas; and reflect upon the effectiveness of choices.

VA: Intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of experiences and ideas.

Possible classroom resources include: Whaam! The Art and Life of Roy Lichtenstein by Susan Goldman Rubin; Roy Lichtenstein, 1923-1997 by Janis Hendrickson; Pop Art by Honneff Klaus; Andy Warhol (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) by Michael Venezia; Andy Warhol, Prince of Pop by Jan Greenberg

Encourage students to investigate graffiti art to see how it is connected to contemporary art.

Students research artists such as Keith Harding to understand the fundamentals of graffiti art.

Organize a whole class bulletin board. Students create a mural depicting graffiti art on the bulletin board.

Students experiment with Andy Warhol's pop-art techniques to create art with simple things such as he did with a soup can.