Every Friday, our library hosts a "STEAM Team" program for children aged 6-12. STEAM is a framework for learning based on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math.
I of course had to choose the main topic of Art when I led this program because there's really no subject I enjoy more. I decided to have the children focus on the great American Pop artist Andy Warhol. We started the program with a viewing of Andy Warhol from Mike Venezia's "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists" series, based upon the identically titled popular book series also by Venezia. The movie was about 20 minutes long, and was colorful and engaging for the kids. I had a child as young as three and as old as 10 present, and it seemed to appeal to all the age groups.
After the film, we made our own Pop Art projects. I pre-cut many different colors of rectangles, kittens, and puppies (using the AccuCut) so that kids could pick out their own colors. When they chose four rectangles, they glued them on to a sheet of construction paper for the background of the project. I made a sample project layering the kittens in the style of Warhol's Pop Art prints. Not only did the children catch on to the layering technique right away, but I was also thrilled when they got super creative with their own projects. (I always try to encourage them that their projects do not need to look like mine- I want them to be creative!) As you can see, that is exactly what they did- we even had a child who wanted to use puppies and kittens (see below)! They loved picking out their own colors and so far I haven't met a child get who did not like playing with glue. Parents were thrilled and said they could not wait to come back for another STEAM event the following week.
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