Elementary

The Essential Questions
How can students incorporate pop art ideas (pop culture, familiar objects, scale, and context) into wearable art?

Objective
Students will create a wearable, lifelike replica of a recognizable food item.

Materials
sketchbooks, drawing implements, felt, low-temperature hot-glue guns, markers, scissors, sewing accoutrements, hair clips or headbands

Procedures
1. Present examples of food-themed artwork from fashion designers, Pop artists, and surrealists (e.g., Elsa Schiaparelli, Claes Oldenburg, and Salvador Dalí) and allow students to reflect on their work.
2. Inform students that they will design a fascinator, headband, or cap based on their favorite food, sketching and taking notes to determine scale, dimension, and wearability.
3. Demonstrate safe gluing methods and possible construction techniques. Students can create their imitation food using scissors, felt, glue, and/or sewing techniques. The finished items will be glued or stitched onto hair clips or headbands.
4. Have students model their completed artworks and ask other students to photograph them.
5. Close with a critique, sharing techniques that worked especially well and ways to improve future designs.

Assessment
Did students design wearable art? Did they discover and utilize strong construction methods when creating their pieces?

Sue Liedke is an art teacher at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.