Clay Chameleons created by 5th Grade

The 5th grade artists wrapped this project up a week ago but I'm only getting around to sharing it now. I mentioned in the Clay Week post that each grade level was portraying an animal in clay form. I challenged my students to practice their hand modeling and coil building skills to sculpt a chameleon.

I began be introducing the chameleon with a presentation about the reptile. I showed them a lot of colorful images and shared interesting facts about their color changing cells. Just a pinch of science is good for student buy-in, here!

I also shared this fun video (disclaimer: some critique that his video is a fake but it is super cool anyway!)

We then set to sculpting with clay! The students had two days to complete their chameleons. Day 1 they modeled the head, body, and attached a coil for the tail. Each table got a photos of the chameleons to reference. At the end of class they wrapped them up in damp paper towels and sealed them in a plastic baggie until the following week. Day 2 they rolled coils and attached them as legs. They rolled small spheres for eyes and used a skewer stick to add textures and details.

I bisque fired them later that week and they painted them with tempera paint on the 3rd day. The last day they sealed them with gloss luster Mod Podge and completed a reflection sheet.

They students were so proud of their creations! I was so proud of their successes!

This chameleon matches their maker's finger nail polish!

Thanks for stopping by!

Clay Week!

Phew! Clay week came and went and boy am I tired! Prepping almost 500 balls of clay for students is hard work. Then there is the teachin' part! Now that the dust has settled, haha, get it? Clay dust? I want to share some of what the students have been making.

I chose "Animals" as the unifying theme for Clay Week. I wanted to add in some science during clay week since Earth Day is coming up around the bend and Spring has sprung in our neck of the woods.

The sweet kinders were introduced to the internet senstation, the Pusheen Cat. They loved it! Along with the kitty they discovered the clay. They learned how we get clay and the basic stages of how clay changes to make a ceramic piece.

We then began by making a basic pinch pot that we squeezed around our thumb. Then, we did some pinching and pulling to model the ears and rolled a small piece of clay to make the coil for the tail. They learned how to attach clay using the score and slip method and etched in the kitty's features using a wooden tool. 

The first grade created slab fish inspired by...wait for it...yep...you guessed....my art ed guru Cassie Stephens. The students learned the slab and coil technique in sculpting their fish. I showed them the demonstration video I made while we worked so that I could have my hands free to assist in their production. I swear, these videos saved me this week! I didn't have to repeat myself and was available to do the hands on work of teaching. Next year I am making demo videos for all of my clay lessons!

 

 The second grade created portraits of Indian painted elephants using a more advanced slab and coil technique. I can't wait to see them in color!

The third grade sculpted sea turtles using the pinch pot and coil technique. We busted these cute little guys out in 40 minutes! It was amazing! I had a demo video for them as well. I did have to deviate from the video for the flippers because hand modeling was too tricky for them. We rolled and flattened coils instead and that seemed to be the way to go.

Look at that detail!

The fourth grade sculpted a bird nest and bird. They used coil and modeling techniques to produce their clay works. I created  a demo video for them and it seemed to go great! Originally I had wanted them to make a bird bath instead of a nest but we just didn't have enough time. 45 minutes fly by when working with clay. They could have spent hours! 

Fifth grade gets 2 art classes to sculpt their chameleons. They are using coil and modeling techniques to produce their sculptures.  I seriously can NOT wait to see these reptiles painted!

Clay week is over but now comes firing all the pieces! I will spend the next week babysitting the kiln for a couple hours each day after school. All the work will be worth it when the kids see their clay transformed into a ceramic sculpture. Fingers crossed nothing breaks!

Thanks for stopping by!

Woven Alligator Puppets in 1st grade

A student favorite! I originally found and adapted this project from my favorite art ed blogger's site, Cassie Stephens. She is my official art ed guru!

The first graders have worked hard in creating woven alligator puppets. I taught this lesson last year and a lot of my students demanded their chance to create one this year.

It begins with a lesson on texture. I have a little poem I teach the kids so they can remember the vocabulary word. It goes like this:

Texture (make a T with hands)
is how something feels (rubs hands)
it can be sharp (say OW! and pretend to touch something sharp)
it can be smoooooth (pretends to touch something smooth)
it can be sticky (pretends to touch something sticky with fingers)
like goo
EW! (pretends to fling goo from hands)

It is super fun.

I then show a visual presentation of alligators in the wild and a close up of their skin. I ask the students to describe the texture to me, they determine it to be bumpy and dry. They then talk to me about how they can recreate or "simulate" that texture in a drawing. I give them green construction paper and they draw their alligator texture with crayon.

We then review how to create a paper loom...we already did this with the Chinese Lantern project for the Lunar New Year. So they were familiar with the process.

Then they were supplied with pre-cut strips of weft in 2 values of green, light and dark. They were instructed to weave a light dark pattern with their paper loom.

The next class the students were shown how to create the puppet alligator head. They created the puppet mouth first out of pre-folded manila paper (check out Cassie's blog for amazing details in creating this device). They were then instructed how to add collage paper in producing the alligator head and attaching it to the puppet mouth.

They are mastering the pop-up collage technique.

The following class they glued their weavings to the puppet head to create the body, cut and glued arms, legs, and a tail. To finish they added additional textures on the body parts with crayons.

Look at those teeth! I love this level of engagement with detail.

Great patterns for texture!

They loved chomping their alligator puppets when they were finished. I was pleased to see their smiles and successes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Over and Under the Snow

The 2nd grade completed these projects last month but I've been busy posting about other grade levels and only getting to this one now. So it goes when you teach 6 levels of art!

We began this lesson by reading the book "Over and Under the Snow", by Kate Messner. I really appreciate the beautiful illustrations by Christopher Silas Neal. The book lends itself well to teaching about space (compositionally) & science (animals & their habitats). The idea to create collage stemmed from a Deep Space Sparkle lesson by the phenomenal Patty!

After reading the book, I asked the class to think about what kind of wintery world they would create inspired by the book. They then prepared a painted paper to collage their composition (I sure love this method of art-making!). They divided up a piece of 12x18" drawing paper and painted the 5 areas with the color scheme we saw in the book (blue, black, red orange, brown, and white). 

The next class the students were tasked with creating a spatial composition with their painted papers. I demonstrated how to draw on the backside of their painted papers so to not have pencil lines all over their paper. They then cut out their drawings and made their collage compositions.

As an extension to this project, we made pop-ups! I was inspired, again, by the incredible Nic Hahn at Mini Matisse. She has been creating "Pop Up Pets" with her art classes.  In the back of the book, the writer included an index of all the animals in her book with accompanying facts about their winter habits and habitats, so I copied and printed them out for each table so each student could choose an animal for their pop-up.

They created their pop-up base, drew/colored/cut their animal out, added a background, and included 3 facts about their animal.

I really like integrating science into art lessons. My students love learning about animals and their environment. I hope they use these techniques in their classrooms in the future when asked to present information in a report.


Thanks for reading!