Mother's Day Clay Plates

MOM & ME by Grade 3 Student



I LUV MY MOM by Grade 4 Student



I made these clay plates with my son's grade 3/4 class.  First we rolled out our clay into a flat slab.  Then using a styrofoam plate turned upsidedown as a template, we traced a circle using wooden kabab skewers.  After cutting out the circle shape they carfully molded their circle into their own styrofoam plate.  I gave them a quick lesson on how to score and slip other pieces onto their plate. 

I had a handful of small cookie cutters (heart, star, butterfly, tulip, bell, flower) but I encouraged them to be creative with the those basic shapes.  Hence, the bell also became a female head, half of a heart became a bird, the tulip and bell combined to make a cat, etc.  Some created their own shapes by hand.

They were also provided with a set of mini alphabet stamps as well as other worded stamps to create impressions into the clay.  

A week later we painted the entire plate white for the first coat.  Then we used acrylic paints of various colours.  When dry, we added a coat of liquid varnish to seal the paint.  The photos are in the pre-varnished state.