Build a Burger Mixed Media Collage – Yr 1 / 2

I have seen many lessons and variations of this activity, but this idea came from ‘Kids Artists- Building Sandwiches’ here.

The Year 1 & 2 classes were working on a Food theme in their classrooms, and I usually tie in with their inquiry unit somehow. I introduced them to a couple of artists who made food related art. One was Claes Oldenburg, Swiss born American. They were fascinated by his larger than life food sculptures, especially the outdoor ones. For this project we looked at his soft sculptures- Floor Burger 1962, and Giant BLT (Bacon Lettuce Tomato) Sandwich 1963.

We discussed what they thought the sculptures were made of (materials & techniques) and watched a video of curators putting together the components for a BLT model for a Oldenburg exhibition.

Learning Intentions & Success Criteria for these lessons:

I am learning about Claes Oldenburg and his soft and hard sculptures of food.
I will learn about shape, variety and texture so I can represent various items of food for a burger / sandwich. I can use a variety of papers to make shapes to represent various foods to go in a “sandwich/burger”. I can overlap the foods when gluing down.

The idea was to “build” a tall sandwich / burger.

Each student started by choosing some painted paper to glue at the bottom of a long piece of paper (A2 cut lengthways) for a table cloth and then gluing a paper plate cut in half on top.

Next they cut two burger bun shape from ribbed cardboard and on of these is glued to the plate. They then start at the bottom gluing their “food” – painted paper, tissue paper coloured paper cut, scrunched or torn into a shape of sandwich fillings. They used a hole punch to make a yellow card look like swiss cheese. Tissue paper was great for lettuce and shaved ham! They needed overlap the food slightly and not glue down everything down flat, to help give the sandwich some form.

The Achievement Standards by the end of Year 2 (Victorian Curriculum) are: Students make artworks using different materials, techniques and processes to express their ideas, observations and imagination. Students describe artworks they make and view, including where and why artworks are made and viewed.

ASSESSMENT: To assess this activity I used the seesaw app which all student artwork (and sometimes work in progress) is photographed in their individual “folio”. Firstly I uploaded a photo of the Oldenburg BLT for students to add a recording of what they thought the item was, what it was made of and why it might have been made. After students completed their artwork they commented on their own piece, describing the components, techniques and different materials they used to represent the food.