This project is absolutely a favorite for my students and I. It covers a lot – drawing and building from observation, template creation, and tons of MATH! As a high school student myself, this project was the only way to convince me to do math, which led to a gigantic peanut butter cup.

Project Description:

I introduced this project in May by showing students Claes Oldenburg’s pop art sculptures and sharing with them the one of his sculptures was transformed from a paint blob to an emoji for April Fools’ Day. We focused on the fact that every day objects became extraordinary through Oldenburg’s sculptures – people actually took the time to stop and look at them.

To begin the project, I asked my students to bring in one every day object that fit in their hand. On the first day, students completed detailed sketches from every angle of their object – top, sides, front, bottom, and back. After they were done sketching, they measured each part to the nearest 16th of an inch and labeled their sketches with the measurements.

The two next classes, students created paper models of their objects by multiplying their measurements by 2, using tape and copy paper.

Once each student had successfully created their paper model, they multiplied their original measurements by 5-10 times, based on how large the original object was. They used their measurements to cut their large forms from cardboard. We used masking tape and hot glue to attach cardboard.

As students finished building their forms, they were asked to bring their original objects in again in order to color match with acrylic paint and any logos or smaller details.