This week, I have Kindergarten making pinch pots and Fifth grade making Emoji Shakers. Long story short....I'm exhausted!:) But they are looking amazing and I can't wait to get them fired.
Kindergarten at my school celebrates Thanksgiving by inviting families to come eat lunch together but also has a performance that they do in their classrooms for the families before lunch. My kiddos were in kindergarten last year so I got to watch my daughter as a turkey and my son as an Indian. It was so cute.
The kindergarten teachers do a whole unit on the Native Americans so it is a great tie in to have them create pinch pots in the art room.
They start with their own blob of clay. I have squares of fabric cut up for each student to work on so that the clay doesn't stick to the tables. (It happens to be red fabric and in one class, a boy looked at me as I was passing them out and said "oh no! did you cut up superman's cape!" - gotta love them! I never know what they are going to say)
Once they shape their blob into a ball, I have them give me a thumbs up. With that thumb int he air I have them stick that thumb into the ball of clay and show them how to pinch the clay and turn it to create the opening of their pot.
The I demonstrate how they can change the opening into a different shape it they choose. They pinch three times for a triangle, four for a square, rectangle, or rhombus and I even show them shapes like a heart. It is a great review of shapes and a way to get them to make them their own and give them choice. I also pass out clay tools so they can practice drawing designs on their pot to add even more to them.
Once I get them fired, I will give them a choice of fall colors to pick from for the glaze and do a second firing. They love to see them once they are out of the second firing and they are such keepsakes for the parents.
The fifth graders will begin their shakers very similar to these. Since our school wide theme this year incorporates the emojis, I thought this would be a great thing to use for this project.
They each started with their blob of clay as well. I had them pinch a small amount off first and told them to create ten small spheres about the size of a green pea (you know like peas and carrots!-of course they didn't get the Forrest Gump reference)
Next they took the rest of the clay and divided it in half and I went through the steps similar to kindergarten on how to create the basic pinch pot. I told them to keep in mind that they want to try to keep the opening of the pinch pots similar in size because they would be eventually putting them together.
While they worked on that, I went around and gave each one a small paper towel. I had them tear it in small pieces to wrap the ten pea sized spheres and had them place them in one of the pinch pots.
Next, they used a clay tool to score the lip of the pinch pots and added slip. They put the two pinch pots together and then they had to smooth the sides to hide where they joined the two pieces together.
The next day they came in I went over additive and subtractive methods of sculpting. I pinched off a small amount of clay for each student so they could add parts of the emoji face on and they were given clay tools to use for the subtractive. I reminded them that if they were doing anything with additive or adding clay pieces to the shaker, they had to slip and score. They are looking amazing so far. I am very excited to see these out of the kiln. Once they are fired, they will be using paint to actually add color (I think the yellow glaze I have is not opaque enough for me for this.)
I will definitely add the finished results of the emoji shakers in a future post to show the final results. Now to plan what is up next and watch some football :)
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