3rd Grade-Yayoi Kusuma Pumpkin Paper Mache Sculptures

I have been trying to focus more on contemporary  artists recently, and came across the work of Yayoi Kusuma. Her "Infinity Mirrors" exhibit came to the Hirshhorn in Washington DC last spring. I tried to get tickets to see it, but unfortunately they sold out. Anyways, I still decided to do a lesson on her work. I always try to do a paper-mache lesson with my 3rd graders.  I talked about how Yayoi is an installation artist, and fascination her with dots and pumpkins.

The 1st part of this lesson I talked about what Installation Art is and what Form is in Art. Students identified that they the pumpkins that they would be creating would be in the shape of a "sphere." They did two sketches of what they would want their paper mache pumpkins to look like at the end. Students used colored pencils to color in their drawings.

Then students used newspaper to shape their pumpkins in to sphere. I always tell them to "shape" it as if they were making a snowball. You would rather have one that is tightly packed together. They used masking tape to hold the newspaper together. Then they rolled newspaper as if they were making a "scroll" to serve as the stem of their pumpkin. Students then attached that to their pumpkin. Using a sharpie, I had students write their names on masking tape and they stuck it to their sculptures.

The 3rd day of this unit is when they start to apply the paper-mache. I always have my students do two layers. I put the paper mache paste in cool-whip bowls, and have bowls full of cut up brown paper for them to dip in the paste. I instruct them to apply one wet strip, and then one dry strip. They apply the paper mache all over. As students are working I give them pieces of colored paper with their names on it which they put their sculptures on when done,

The 4th day of this unit is having students paint their dried paper mache pumpkins using tempera paint. I have them paint solid colors as the first layer

The 5th day of the lesson is having students decorate their painted paper mache pumpkins with dots all over using tempera paint again.