Andy Warhol Teaching Resources and Lesson Plans

While kids absolutely love working with scissors and glue, in the primary grades, most are not quite adept at using either. This Andy Warhol-inspired art unit is a favorite because it serves two purposes: first, of course, it presents an awesome and simple introduction to American pop art icon, Andy Warhol; but second, it offers a fantastic opportunity for young kids to develop and practice their cutting and gluing skills. While there are countless ways an artist might employ scissors and glue sticks, with 4-8 year olds, I like to focus on techniques that are simply safe, efficient, and effective. This unit covers the basics and gives kids a chance to practice and demonstrate these skills.

The other super cool thing about this Warhol-inspired studio project is that it incorporates printmaking. Specifically, hand printing. Kids are prompted to press their wide-open hand onto cold, wet, gooey paint, then stamp it four times right on top of their cutting and gluing work. This instantly transforms the project into an eye-catching piece of pop art! Talk about hands-on fun!

These Andy Warhol teaching resources and lesson plans:

expose kids to several of Warhol’s kid-friendly artworks,
offer guided instruction relating to scissors and glue sticks,
explore the idea of repeating an image or print for visual impact, and
help you, as facilitator, feel confident about exactly how to connect all this to a really fun mixed-media project.

In addition to a detailed overview of our art unit, below you’ll find a generous collection of supplemental resources that’ll have you feeling and sounding like a regular at The Factory (Warhol’s New York Studio, ha!).

Keep scrolling for:

15 Warhol-Related Fun Facts
Picture Books to go Along with Andy Warhol Art Projects
Informational Books about Andy Warhol
Informational Videos about Andy Warhol
An overview with photos and screenshots of the Andy Warhol art unit
Free Printable Andy Warhol Quote Poster

Famous Artist Facts

15 Fun Facts about Andy Warhol for Kids

Andy Warhol was born in 1928 in Pennsylvania.
His last name was originally “Warhola”
He graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology before moving to New York.
His first job was illustrating advertisements in fashion magazines.
One of his most famous prints was a single can of Campbell’s soup.
He actually painted 32 pictures of different flavors of Campbell’s soup!
Warhol made a lot of self portraits dressed up in different ways.
Warhol liked to use bright colors and silk screening techniques.
He used screen printing to mass-produce art based on photographs of celebrities.
Warhol’s studio in New York City was called The Factory.
He saw art as a product, the same as the clothes you wear and the food you eat.
Warhol was called a pop artist because he took images from popular culture, or everyday life.
He died in New York City on February 22, 1987.
Warhol’s will dictated that his entire estate would go to create a foundation dedicated to the “advancement of the visual arts,” now known as the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Many of Warhol’s works and possessions are on display at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

For more information about Andy Warhol, visit the following pages.

Andy Warhol Biography and Museum Info

Andy Warhol Biography

Andy Warhol Facts for Kids

Books to go Along with Andy Warhol Art Projects

Books About Andy Warhol and Pop Art

Warhol by Klaus Honnef
This book introduces Warhol’s multifaceted, prolific oeuvre, which revolutionized distinctions between “high” and “low” art and integrated ideas of living, producing, and consuming that remain central questions of modern experience. {Full book details here.}

Pop Art (Inside Art Movements) by Susie Brooks
Pop artists from Andy Warhol to David Hockney strived to make art accessible for everyone, celebrating the popular symbols from the modern age. {Full book details here.}

Uncle Andy’s: A Faabbbulous Visit with Andy Warhol by James Warhola
When James Warhola was a little boy, his father had a junk business that turned their yard into a wonderful play zone that his mother didn’t fully appreciate! But whenever James and his family drove to New York City to visit Uncle Andy, they got to see how “junk” could become something truly amazing in an artist’s hands.
{Full book details here.}

Texting with Andy Warhol: An Art Biography Book for Kids by Bobby Basil
Alex texts with the pop artist Andy Warhol and learns about his works of art. Who knew soup cans could be considered art?! {Full book details here.}

Art Is Everywhere: A Book About Andy Warhol by Jeff Mack
With Art Is Everywhere, Jeff Mack explores Warhol’s fascination (and our own) with celebrity and fame, and opens readers’ minds to the possibilities for art in the world around us. {Full book details here.}

Who Was Andy Warhol? by Kirsten Anderson
Working in the aptly named “Factory,” Warhol’s paintings, movies, and eccentric lifestyle blurred the lines between pop culture and art, ushering in the Pop Art movement and, with it, a national obsession. Who Was Andy Warhol? tells the story of an enigmatic man who grew into a cultural icon. {Full book details here.}

Learn More About Andy Warhol and Pop Art with these YouTube Videos

Pop Art & Andy Warhol for Kids by Kirsten Brunner
This video was created to teach young children about the Pop Art movement and Andy Warhol. Instructions included at the end of the video on how to create a collaborative, classroom pop art poster. {See it on YouTube.}

Andy Warhol by Educational Videos for Kids
Facts about Warhol’s life, and samples of his art. {See it on YouTube.}

What is Pop Art? Art Movements & Styles by nationalgalleries
From the scrapbooks of Eduardo Paolozzi, to Andy Warhol’s screen-prints; this film looks back at the beginnings of Pop Art, and explores its continuing legacy. {See it on YouTube.}

Andy Warhol Art Unit for K-2 Art Students

Engage young artists in a project-based study of Andy Warhol in this unit of the Famous Artist series from Kids Art Projects 101. Introduce children to pop art as they create their own Warhol-inspired repeating handprints with black tempera paint on construction paper.

Inside the unit you’ll find a 29-page unit guide full of information and tips for teaching this series of art lessons to students in preschool through grade 2.

The unit is broken down into four 40-minute sessions.

For each session there is a guided presentation that has already been prepared for you and can be used via Google Slides or PowerPoint.

The presentation also introduces and guides you and your kiddos through completion of a studio project and follow-up activity.

It’s a really easy setup! The presentation also introduces and guides you and your kiddos through completion of a studio project and follow-up activity. The studio project involves cutting, gluing, and hand printing.

The 99-page combined PDF and Google Slides full resource includes:

An original digital storybook designed to expose students to famous artworks and details about Andy Warhol
A scissor safety sing-along and discussion
A step-by-step studio project guide with clear directions, supply lists, and work sample photos
Two printable hand template pages
Some quick fun facts
A digital lesson review
An art show prompt with guided questions
A printable self-assessment
Early finisher suggestions
Blank slide templates

Warhol Unit Teaching Tips Video

The Famous Artists units are designed to be open-and-go, but if you are the kind of teacher who likes to dig a little deeper, we’ve also created video tutorials for each of the units. In each video I share helpful tips that I’ve learned along the way as I use these units in my own elementary art classroom. These are currently available only to members of the Kids Art Projects 101 program. Learn more about becoming a member here.

Free Printable Warhol Quote Poster

I’m sharing a free printable quote poster to go with each of the famous artist units. These can be used as a way to connect art and literacy and inspire discussions about the meaning or significance of each artist’s quote.

The free printable includes a color option that can be placed on display in the art room as decor throughout the year or added to a student work showcase bulletin board.

There is also a black and white version that kids can use as an optional coloring page.