Face Pots, 5th Grade

 

Face pots are my favorite 5th grade clay lesson!  They turn out amazing every year. 

Students begin this lesson by creating clay pots using slabs. (I have my students make their own slabs. We do not have a slab roller).  Students then add details like eyes, nose and mouths. We also discuss the importance of scoring/slipping to make sure all the pieces stay connected.

These are amazing! There is also a great History Detectives episode that explains the history of face jugs.  I often show this video to my students at the beginning of this lesson.  

Outer Space Art- 3rd Grade

 

My 3rd graders have been rocking our outer space themed art lesson!  Their creativity always surprised me.  

For this lesson, students drew planets, space ships, comets, aliens, etc.  They used oil pastels to color their planets.  (We discussed the idea of blending colors with the pastels to make the planets look more realistic).  

After their planets were drawn, students cut their planets out, and glued them to a piece of black paper.  The white dots in the background were simply done by splatter painting.  

Prints, 5th Grade

These prints were made by my fifth graders.  Students carved into styrofoam and printed it four times. 

 This is the first year that I allowed them to experiment with multiple colors.  I was worried that the colors would become too mixed up, but the students pleasantly surprised me.  It turned out great, and I like the look of multiple colors!

Clay Cupcakes, 3rd Grade

My 3rd graders created these beautiful clay cupcakes.  Students used the pinch pot technique to create the top and bottom of their cupcakes.  The bottom of the cupcake was placed in a silicone cupcake mold to create the ridges, and look more realistic.  Details were added later.  It is important students score and slip all details, otherwise many pieces fall off.  

 After it was out of the kiln, we painted them with tempera paint.  These could also be glazed, but we chose to paint since glaze is expensive. To make them shiny, we added a layer of shiny acrylic on top. 

These are amazing!  This is one of my favorite assignments every year. 

Face Pots, 5th Grade

This is one of my favorite lessons every year.  Students use the slab technique to create face pots.

To introduce this lesson, we always discuss the history of face pots in America.  PBS has a great episode of History Detectives, all about face jugs.  I always begin by having my students watch this video,  https://www.pbs.org/video/history-detectives-face-jug/

Students then create their own face pots by using slabs and coils.  I always emphasize the importance of scoring and slipping.  This is the first year that I have not had a single eye ball fall off the pots.  I guess they listened well this year.

After firing, students glaze the pots.  I always tell them to use at least 3 coats of glaze.  I love these this year!

Warm and Cool Color Hands, 3rd Grade

This is an oldie, but a goodie.  I have been teaching this lesson for years.  I did not create this lesson myself.  I have seen it on numerous sites, so I am not sure who originally created this lesson idea.  If this is your lesson, let me know, I would love to give you credit. 

This lesson is about practicing patterns and warm and cool colors.  Students draw a pattern for their background first.  After this, students are asked to use either all warm or all cool colors for the background.  Then the hand is colored with the opposite. This lesson is simple, it looks amazing, and student's love it!

Ocean Silhouettes

 It's the end of the year, and I needed a quick, fun, and simple lesson. This lesson was perfect because it's fun, uses few supplies and takes little time. My second graders created these silhouette ocean scenes.  I found the basic idea for this lesson at: http://youngschoolart.blogspot.com/2016/10/2nd-gradesilhouettes.html?m=1.  This took two classes to complete.  In the first class, students created the watercolor background. We discussed warm and cool colors to create the background.  During the second class, students used black sharpies to create silhouettes.

Prints, 5th Grade

 These are styrofoam prints created by my fifth graders.  Each student carved a design into a piece of styrofoam, and then printed it four times.  I kept this fairly open ended.  Students could create any design as long as it didn't have words or letters.  Students also chose the colors they wanted to print. Some students chose to make all four prints the same color, while others chose multiple colors.   

 I think these turned out really well!

Coil Pots, 4th Grade

My fourth graders have been creating coil pots.  Students learned to create coils, and attach using the score and slip method. Since this is their first experience with coils, I also give them the option to create a pinch pot for the base.  I do this because many students struggle to create a strong enough base with only coils.  

 So far, these look wonderful. We still need to fire and glaze them.  I will post more pictures when they are finished.

Clay Cupcakes, 3rd Grade

My school has been doing clay for weeks now.  These are the clay cupcakes made by my third graders.  Students used the pinch pot method to create the top and bottom of the cupcake.  Students also used a silicone cupcake liner to create a realistic look to the bottom of the cupcake.  Instead of glaze, they used tempera paint to add color.  Overall, these were a huge success! 

Pinch Pot Monsters, 2nd Grade

My second graders made pinch pot monsters. 

First, they created pinch pots with clay. Then students added eyes, mouths, and other details to create a monster.  All added pieces were scored and slip.  Hint: If you add vinegar to the slip, it attaches better.

After they were out of the kiln, we painted with watercolors.  I then put a clear acrylic sealer over it, to add a shine.

Clay Fish, 1st Grade

I teach on a cart at one of my schools.  This is a simple clay lesson that I did with first graders, and it worked very well on a cart.  I found the idea for this lesson on Cassie Stephen's blog.  I made a few changes to the original lesson though, since I teach from a cart. 

 I brought small pieces of cardboard to the classroom, for students to work on .  This helped keep the clay from sticking to their desks.  Students created the texture by stepping on the clay with their shoes. One hint: make sure the clay is not too wet.  If the clay is really wet, it gets stuck to their shoes.  Details were added and everything was scored and slipped. 

After the clay was dry and fired in the kiln, students added color using oil pastels.  Then we brushed over everything with watered down India Ink.  This created a resist.  

Clay Faces, 5th Grade

A few weeks back, I posted about my students' clay pots, but at that point the pots had not been glazed.  Here are the final results.

 As I mentioned in my previous post, these pots were made using the slab technique. All details were added using the score and slip method.   Before creating these pots, my students watched this History Detectives video.  It really is a great introduction to the history of face pots. 

Cultural Landscapes, 4th Grade

This was an art integrated lesson that was co-taught with the librarian at my school.  In library, the students researched a country of their choosing.  They also wrote about their country.  Then in art, the students drew a landscape of that country.  I borrowed a few Chromebooks and library books, so students could research the features of their country's landscape. 

Using observational skills, students drew landscapes using photos as reference. Students drew in pencil, outlined in marker, and painted with watercolors.

Each one turned out different, and the students are so proud of them!  This is one of my favorite assignments from this school year!  We will be displaying these at International Night at my school.  

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Kindergarten

 With my Kindergarteners, I love to begin their art lessons with a story.  This one was based on Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Williams.  I found this wonderful art idea on Cassie Stephens' blog, but changed it a little to fit my time frame.

I had my students draw a pigeon with crayons.  Students then drew a background.  I encouraged designs and symbols in the background.  Students then used watercolors to paint their drawings.  Overall, I think these turned out wonderful!

Winter Paintings, 3rd Grade

 Right before Christmas break, I had my third graders create winter landscapes.  The goal of this assignment was to teach color mixing.  I showed students how to create tints with their paint.  This is how we created the sky.

 The landscape was painted with black and white to create a silhouette.  I allowed students to paint anything as long as it was a winter scene.  Of course, I ended up with a lot of Christmas themed ones, since we did these in December.

Face Pots, 5th Grade

My fifth graders have been working hard on their clay pots in the last few weeks.  To begin, I showed my students this History Detectives Video, by PBS, to introduce the history of face pots.  This video explains how face pots can be traced back to African Americans during the mid 1800's.    

 I then taught my students how to create a clay pot by making slabs.  Students added details to their face pot, and I taught them to score and slip all added pieces. 

These are looking great so far.  After these are out of the kiln, we will be glazing them.

Yarn Weaving, 3rd Grade

 My third graders have been working on weaving for the last two months.  We began by learning paper weaving.  Then students moved on to weaving with yarn.

I have seen paper plate weaving done many times with elementary students, so I have no idea who initially came up with this idea.  However, I found really well written directions for this on Cassie Stephens blog.

Silhouette Houses, 3rd Grade

 Every year, around this time, I do a Silhouette House lesson with my students.  This year, I did it with third graders.  Many of my students choose to make their silhouette house scary, but students have the option to make any type of house.

The background is created with liquid watercolors, and the foreground painted with black tempera paint.