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!

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Flipped Lesson: Doodle Cube

Since I'll be out of the building on Friday, I decided to create a flipped lesson on how to create a "Doodle Cube". My guest teacher can give their introduction and share my video with my classes for instruction. Since most guest teachers are not usually art educators, the video can be a super helpful tool in teaching my kids.

The learning objective is to create an original design using line, shape, pattern, texture, and color to create visual "unity" throughout the cube.

I sure hope it goes over well with my classes. I've shown other video demonstrations during clay week, so most of my students are familiar with this instructional method.

If it is a success, I'll probably make more of these video lessons for guest teachers in the future.

Color mixing with Kinders

Well, the school year is coming to and end in less than 30 days and my art students are feeling Spring Fever big time. I've decided to get out the paints for a color theory unit in hopes of keeping all of their busy minds focused and engaged. My kinder artists sure LOVE paint, let me tell you. Throughout the year I've periodically introduced brush techniques and paint management so that now they are ready to learn color theory. I begin with the Washington state standard of teaching them primary colors and secondary colors.

I begin by showing them the OK Go video shown on Sesame Street. The kids love it.

After this, I read them the book "Mouse Paint", by Ellen Stoll Walsh. I use the illustrations for inspiration for our color mixing art works.

I lead them through a guided drawing of the 3 mice and then we get to painting. I've used red, yellow, and blue paint as well as magenta, yellow, and cyan crayola paints in this lesson and I've found that the latter paints produce more vibrant color mixes. There is debate in the art education world whether red, yellow, and blue are not the true primary colors but magenta, yellow, and cyan should be taught instead. So, I introduce magenta as "red's sister" and that you can count her as a part of red's family. The kids get it.

As an extension of this lesson and another way for me to assess their understanding, I read them "Mister Seahorse", by Eric Carle.

I, again, lead them in a guided drawing as inspiration from the book's illustration and I demonstrated mixing colors. The kinders were instructed to paint the seahorses as they wished but must show the primary and secondary colors.

They were so excited to mix the colors and discovered that mixing all 3 primary colors can create brown. Who knew brown would be so exciting!?

Their excitement is what makes me think my job is the best. Kinder artists are so much fun.

Here is a shot of my room these days....a painting factory!

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Birds upon coiled clay nests by 4th grade

My 4th grade artists have now had me as an art teacher for 2 years. Each year I am trying to build upon the previous years skill set. In clay, my students learned how to make coil pots last year as 3rd graders. This year, I wanted to challenge them further by teaching them how to hand model clay. I instructed them to build their coil nest first as a review, then they were to create a bird with their remaining clay.

 

The students learned the difference between greenware, bisqueware, and stoneware since they were getting the opportunity to glaze this year. I had no idea how happy the glaze would make them. They were really amazed how different glaze was from tempera paint and even more astounded at its final look after the 2nd kiln firing.

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Clay Fish created by 1st grade

My first grade artists were so excited to work with clay again. As kinders last year, I had introduced them to making coils. This year I taught them to make slabs and reviewed coil making. They worked on practicing their skills in attaching clay by using a score and slip method.

Each grade level of artists were making animals out of clay. I took a riff of of my favorite art ed guru Cassie Stephens and had my firsties make fish. She has a lot of neat ideas on teaching clay to kids. Next year I'm going to take her cue on using toothbrushes and water to work attached clay pieces rather than my method of using skewers and having them mark "X"s on the pieces of clay they are connecting. Sometimes they didn't go deep enough or add slip so their fish features slid off once the clay dried out. Sigh...it happens.

Since I only had enough $$ in my budget to glaze half of my classes this year my younger artists finished their pieces with tempera paint. 

Most kids were really successful and all had a great time. Here are some of our results!

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