The thrill of the kiln

This is the best work this student created all year.  I was so proud!

Let me just say that I Love being surprised by the creativity of my students.  As I've shared with you before, clay is the unit I enjoy teaching most each year.  Clay has always been my personal favorite medium so sharing it with my students is the ultimate excitement for me.  The best time of the year is opening the kiln after the glaze firing and discovering all the wonderful treasures.  There were so many amazing works this year that I decided to just share them all with you.  So this lengthy post will be photo heavy.  When my students came into class this week their projects were waiting with a rubric to be used for self assessment of their work.

 After completing the rubric, they flipped the paper and wrote an artist statement about their work that was to be posted on Artsonia along with the picture of their clay project.  This was a very enlightening process for students and myself.  I really appreciated reading their own reflections about their work and the writing stimulated many private conversations concerning what might be done differently the next time they worked with clay.  This was especially helpful for me as I worked with the fourth grade students that I will work with again next year.  I also found that most of the students were much harder on their work that I would be when I grade it.  I was thrilled to read most of their comments and to learn more about the motivation behind their choices.  These are some of the standout pieces for me.  They were all created by 4th and 5th grade students and are representations from the two schools I am assigned to.

Not your average turtle, a sea turtle

An elephant with a basket on his back

I'm not sure what this is from but he really focused on detail

An Eagle

This little bird is removeable from the nest

We added some twistee wire for the antenna 

Nice coiled snake

These giraffe necks are challenging

Don't you love the shades

Bunny with basket and carrot

Monkey

Cute bird with really long legs

Bird with outstretched wings

Another removable bird in the nest

Amazing balance with this one

Great texture

The detail in this face is fabulous

A standing unicorn

Godzilla

This seahorse was only about 3" tall

Amazing detail and texture

Another fabulous dog

Wonderful standing rabbit

cute face and bow tie on this unicorn

This elephant is about 7" tall

wonderful squirrel

nicely personalized owl. 

Another elephant

original platypus

A person

Coiled snake

Another rabbit

This boy spent so much time and effort on this
spiked creature

Another interesting elephant

waddling penguin

Ready to pounce

very detailed duck

sweet face kitty

penguin with ice cube

crocodile

bird with nest

amazing antlered deer

dog waiting for a hug

owl

great bird