Kindergarten Texture discovery!

I love having Kindergarten students discover texture.  In past years I have given them a ball of white model magic and they have impressed it on the bottom of a shoe to create a disk.  After they water colored them or colored with markers, I glued a  heavy strength magnet on the back to create a refrigerator magnet.  Last year I grabbed the low-fire clay during one class when they completed a clay project more quickly that expected and created the magnets that way.  They were a bit heavy for the magnets so I made a mental note to add a hole prior to the bisque firing this year to create necklaces.  I had instructed students to bead a pattern but the color beads were too much for some students and they just beaded.  I had handed out felt square for students to bead on.  This really cut back on beads rolling off the tables and bouncing across the floor.
To finish the bisque, I had students color hard with all those end of the year broken crayons.  A coat of black tempera colored everything and was washed off to create the batik effect.  Bold coloring in the lighter colors creates a better finished project.

Fourth grade connections with Writing and Art

Voices of children
Whir of wings
Bright with the sheen of the dew
Flashed like the plane-tree
Beautiful

Under the stairs
In the coat cupboard
Hiding place
I can't wait to tell

Pop
Bushes cracked
Frightful
I was terrified
Just wait
I heard another shot






These are some recent works by fourth grade students.  I had scrounged some old book discards from the school library and approached the writing teacher and asked her to collaborate with me on this project.  She worked with students to create the emotion poems.  In the art room we discuss how they might illustrate the feelings and the artwork happened with me.  I've been extremely impressed by many of these and would really love to share them all!  You can check out additional postings here and here.

Shape Dinosaurs in habitats

This is a follow-up to a post a few weeks ago I was leaving for a sub.  Here is the previous post.  I had wanted Kindergarten students to practice cutting skills and then form a dinosaur of their choice out of the shapes.  I didn't think they would have time to complete everything in one session and I was correct.  The substitute worked with student on cutting out their shapes and that is all they accomplished.   The next week I talked with students about habitats and specifically, what the habitat for a dinosaur might look like.  The discussions included foods and other things that might be necessary for survival.  Students set to work drawing a habitat and adding color.  Once these were completed, I handed out their envelopes of shapes from the previous class and had them play with them to form a dinosaur of their choice.  It could resemble a dinosaur they knew about or it could be a fantasy dino.  I had them play for awhile and then allowed them to glue the dinosaur onto the habitat.  The project was a hit and students were excited to take them home.  I wanted to save them for the hall bulletin board because they really are "just that cute"!  So here are a few photos.

Two Dinosaurs because the student wanted one to fly

This one looks like a prehistoric porcupine.

This student wanted to make sure her Dino had water

Another pair of dinosaurs

Lots of scales or lots of legs...not sure

Lots of detail added to this one using crayon after the glue down.

Elbows and knees with Clay if you please!

With my young kinders, I always want to have them experience the feeling and mobility of clay.  Anything they produce will be endearing and hopefully treasured by their parents.  My goal for the clay unit is just have them create!  I generally have them complete three to four clay projects.  The first day I will often hand them a small piece of clay and just have them create something using their innate devices.  For instance, many of them will flatten it into some sort of shape and a few will form it into a ball and begin to pinch and stretch it.  The animals they create aren't always easily distinguishable but this will be their interpretation and that is what I am looking for and value in the experience.  The following week I will walk them through a coil pot that is formed inside of a plastic bowl from the dollar store.  I spoke about that process earlier in the year here.  I follow that up with a pinch pot and finally, they create an elbow or knee pot.  If you've never done this with your younger students, it is a hoot!  They can't imagine that you are asking them to push a protruding part of their body into a ball of clay and then they are amazed to find it really does look a little like a small bowl.  So here are some of their finished works.  Give them a try for your next clay session, you will appreciate the results and the kids will love them!

Ugly jug inspired cups

First grade students are experiencing their second exposure to clay in elementary school but the transition from Kindergarten has made them a bit more aware of the quality of their work.  I never want to create that "too critical" creative environment with my students; especially at a young age when they aren't yet too inhibited to experiment.  I begin the lesson by reading the book "Dave the Potter" by Laban Carrick Hill.  This is a historical account of Dave who was a slave, Potter, and Poet.  The book supplies a wonderful cultural and historical connection for students who have just begun to learn about slavery.  I always emphasize the fact Dave was a potter despite the fact slaves were not allowed to attend school.  The book and discussion takes up a great amount of time from the first class period and generally we only create a pinch pot before class is completed.  The second week, students are encourage to "grow" their pot as Dave did in the book by adding coils of clay.  We have successfully review two of the concepts they were introduced to in Kindergarten.  Next, the new skill of score, slip and smooth is introduced as students implement the additive process to actually create the face for their ugly cup.  I particularly enjoy the idea these are intended to be ugly because students aren't stifled trying to achieve beautiful at this age.  Needless to say, they LOVE making their cups ugly.  I do model all the add ons; insisting that students start with a ball shape and then manipulate the clay to form the finished appendage.  Enjoy their completed work here!

And then we glaze....Finally!

 My clay schedule was really off this year due to snow days and other project flukes so here we are in May with my students glazing clay projects.  We have seven more weeks of school and it's a cool Spring so its really not a big problem.  But it feels really off to be so late completing these things!  Both fourth and fifth grade classes create animals with the emphasis on analyzing shapes and putting them together to form a distinguishable animal.  It was a hard few weeks during the creative process when I felt I really had to push so many of my students to extend their thinking and put more effort into their work.

 It looks like it might have paid off.  Here are a few of the works with under glaze applied this morning.  I will dip them into a transparent glaze prior to the final firing.  Of course, the colors will really pop once fired.  I am pleased with some of the creative choice student's made with color application and detail.  Watch for finished work in the next few weeks!

This amazing deer is by a 5th grader.  It also is a clay whistle.

Check out the cool polka dots on this sea creature.

Octopus and Star fish are always popular but a real challenge
when it comes to keeping the legs from breaking.

Not an animal....this student sold me on his project idea
so I let him deviate from the initial assignment.  It's still shapes
to form what might have been a living creature.

Turtles are always too popular

Check out how intent he is in his work.  This octopus will
be purple.

Cinco de Mayo - Fiesta!

One of my buildings always puts on a school dance around this time of the year where the teachers work to raise money for the PTA.  The theme for this year was Fiesta.  Art students create the decorations for the dance.  Fourth grades students created patterns in lively colors on white paper that had been cut into 9 x 4.5 sheets.  I had envisioned them as the skirts for Senoritas but once the papers were accordion folded; they didn't quite measure up in size.  The folds immediately brought to mind the beautiful fans Senoritas waved as they danced and the work took it's own life.  The fans made beautiful decorations.   The lesson incorporated math with the patterns along with an exposure to the culture of Cinco de Mayo with vibrant color and dance.