8th Grade Ceramics

I majored in clay back when I got my BFA and it is my first love! When I had the opportunity to teach clay during my student teaching, I was thrilled! the 8th graders first learned basic slab building techniques as well as modeling and relief sculpting when they created garden leaf faces and 'green men'. After becoming comfortable with handling clay, they moved on to making gargoyles, a really fun lesson for all. They formed their clay around an armature, created expressions while modeling faces and used a finer clay body to achieve better detail. Some of the almost finished products can be seen waiting to be fired. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the finished gargoyles, but they painted them after they were fired with a gray stone like acrylic paint.

Bubble letters

I promised 1st graders that they could free paint the last day of class (they unanimously agreed this was what they wanted to do!) The more I thought about this, however, the more I didn't want them to have at the supplies with abandon as this often leads to lots of paper in the trash... Instead I had them write their first initial on a large sheet of paper as a bubble letter using oil pastels. They added minimal designs inside their letters with a reminder that white oil pastels could be used also, as it would show up when they paint over it. Then they were allowed to paint their letters however they liked. This worked so much better and their was no waste at the end. Most kids love anything having to do with their names, so this was a perfect one day lesson!

Clowning around

This lesson was borrowed from deepspacesparkle, another wonderful art teacher blog. First graders learned a little about clowns and clowning around... (so did I!)
And then they all designed their own individual clowns. The following week, they painted them and the last week they cut them out and mounted them on construction paper. All loved this project and we had many giggles and laughs when they were all displayed side by side in the front of the room!

Birds on a wire

I found this cute lesson on artsonia and decided to try it as a last day for kinder art lesson. I think the lesson is pretty self explanatory, but I will say that you should caution students against adding too many birds (which are simply their thumbprints) because of course they will have to add the details to all of the birds they create! This was the most challenging part for the kinders, but they still turned out pretty cute!

Apples and Oranges

My other 5th grade class also painted apples, but to switch it up a little, I brought in apples and oranges to create a more complex still life. It was the first time painting a still life for many of the students and they really had a good time!






It took approximately 4 - 45 minute classes for the students to finish their still lifes, so you have to make sure you have a nice cold spot to store your fruit in the interim. Of course they were using their skills learned in the previous lesson about form and outerspace. But I found that this lesson really showed the students how important careful observation is when trying to depict an object realistically. We talked a lot about seeing what is really there, and not what you think is there. I had to remind students that they needed to keep looking at their still lifes and observe that an apple is not just red, but could have green, yellow, brown, and even purple in it.


They also observed that they couldn't see all of the fruit equally. They had to make sure that there was overlap. Many of then came up with creative solutions for their tables and backgrounds. This was a fun lesson and a real eye opener for many of the students that careful observation is the key to depicting what is actually there!

2nd grade weaving

If you want a nice, calm engaging end of the year project for 2nd (and probably 3rd, 4th or 5th) graders, look no further! I found some pieces of burlap in storage and decided to teach some basic sewing/weaving skills to the students. After discussing basic terminology such as loom, warp, weft, needle, eye of the needle and running stitch I demonstrated how to create a basic running stitch in a 6x9 inch piece of burlap. After the students got the hang of this, they were allowed to add beads, and/or sew their initials or other shapes into their weavings.



The final step of this project was adding a large craft stick to the top and bottom of the back of the weaving along with a hanger so their weaving can be hung from the wall.