April 11, 2018

Trying Something New: 4th Grade/Clay

I'm not a person that likes to do the same old projects the same old ways!  I love reinventing projects or trying something completely new.  After teaching for 20+ yrs....I would be so board if I didn't!!  

So I'm venturing into new territory.  After seeing several videos of ceramic artists that create expressive faces on their thrown vessels...I decided I'd try adapting it to the elementary art room.  

First off....we don't have wheels to throw on!  So I had to come up with an idea for a vessel.  I decided we'd do a slump pot/cup.  I also do not have a slap roller...so I'd have to get my students to make their slab to slump! ha ha  

I had the students place an open napkin over the bottom of an upside down water cup(I use short fat tumbler cups from the dollar store) for their surface to slump over.  After placing the slap over the bottom of the cup...they had to located the largest flat surface to create their face on. 






One of the fun challenges of this project is that they had to create the face upside down!! I've only had one student forget to do this so far.  They could make a person, monster, animal...whatever they wanted to create with an expressive face.  

We talked about addition, subtraction, texture, coil...and all the techniques we've covered since kindergarten.....and how they could apply them in this work!  

CAN'T WAIT TO FIRE THEM & HAVE THE STUDENTS PAINT THEM!!

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