An All Time Favorite: Pizza Box Biographies

Our used pizza boxes have been brushed clean of crumbs, white washed with tempera and lightly marked with grid lines. The art room was buzzing with excitement today as students began sketching in the paintings of their selected artists.  I am always amazed at the paintings selected. Everything from Michelangelo to Banksy, from the Sistine Chapel to the streets of London!

I've improved (I hope) my methods of teaching the students about art movements and artist's style. I added a slide show, a game with Happy Bob, the bouncing ball, and an interactive "quiz." I will further assess the success of these methods as I work one on one with students during the coming week and can observe how well they apply what they learned about their artists. 

It's always fun to help the students figure out how to imitate the style of their artist, mixing colors to match, trying to copy brush stroke and so on. And it's especially fun to see their amazement at what they can accomplish. Once students finish their copy painting, then they get really creative as they design a mixed-media pizza inspired by the artist and art movement they have studied. The puffy color wheel for Matisse is still an all time favorite from the Pizza Box Biographies art unit.

Pizza Box Biographies

This Lesson is available at FunArtLessons.com
Late Thursday afternoon, last week, I sat at my desk, stumped, as always, by how to make the last day of class meaningful and fun. Friday was the end of the term and I would have to say goodbye to a fabulous group of 7th and 8th graders. Our pizza box biographies were finished, students had completed their presentations, and other than hand back work there wasn't much else to do.
As with many of my better ideas, it wasn't until I was almost out the school door Thursday, that it came to me: Famous Artist BINGO! I rushed back to the classroom, added BINGO to my white board schedule and quickly ran off some bingo cards.
The first question students asked on Friday as they filled their bingo cards with the names of artists we had studied was "what do we win?" A stick of gum- my standard student motivator - was all they needed for the competitive spirit to spread!
To earn the coveted sticky stuff winners had to read back names with correct pronunciation, that in itself led to some good laughs! Then they had to select one artist from the winning row and share with the class a fact or two about art style, life or art work. When students weren't sure, they could "consult a pizza box," a last minute innovation that made the game.
Students were amazingly proud when their box about Wayne Thiebaud or Helen Frankenthaler became the expert source of information that led to another stick of gum flying through the air to a happy winner!
I'm always trying to think of ways that student's art work can have a meaningful purpose once it's finished. This activity turned out to be a really fun way to spend our last class together, revisit the content of the art history unit and take one last look at the incredible art projects students created before they go on display.
I've almost finished adding student photos to the Power Point lessonplan that will be available in May on my website, FunArtLessons.com, so check back and I'll let you know when you can get all the details for the Pizza Box Biography project that resulted in such a fun culminating lesson!
To see more pictures of the pizza boxes go to my Fun Art Gallery.

More Green Art: This Time Recycled Pizza Boxes

I don't know about your teaching situation but in my middle school we consume a lot of pizza. There are pizza party rewards for fund raisers, team pizza parties, staff pizza lunches and occasionally the lunch room serves pizza - ordered from a local pizza joint.
I started thinking about the possibilities of using recycled pizza boxes in art projects last year when I walked past a mountain of boxes waiting to be hauled out to the dumpster.
It took me a year, but my 7th and 8th grade students are just finishing up one of the most successful projects I've ever done! They loved it and learned so much about painting and art history! Check back soon for pics and a project description!