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.


   

 

    

Splat the Cat and Friends

I LOVE how these little Splat the Cat inspired bowls turned out!!!

I got the idea for this clay project from a little cat bowl I saw on Etsy.com and decided to try it out with my Grade Ones.

Some of my students wanted to glaze their cats a different colour, and so we have some of Splat's friends:

First we rolled out our clay into a slab.  I gave them a cat shaped tracer that they had to draw into their slab with a wooden kebab skewer.  Then using a plastic knife they cut away the extra clay.  Using their fingers they carefully smoothed out the outer edges of their cats.

They also used the skewers to try to make impressions in the paws as you can see in the blue cat below.  Some kids just drew lines on their paws.

Then using their skewers and  various tools around the classroom they created the faces for their cats.  Impressions for the eyes were made using the flat end of a pencil crayon.

When all their details were done they gently lay their cat slabs into a styrofoam bowl, carefully molding the cat into the shape of the bowl.

When they were completely dry we fired them in the kiln.  We glazed them and refired them then added small googly eyes as the final touch.

Garden Gnomes

We made these cute little garden gnomes to go with our water color gardens!

We are currently studying geometry in math and so I made a few template tracers for the shape of our gnomes.  We used a large triangle for the body, a small triangle for the hats, a large white circle for the beards and an oval for the face. 

My students cut strips into the white circle to create their beards and cut out their own boots and belts.  I love that this student added glassed to her gnome!

We also used painted eyes and a nose with our finger prints, then added eyebrows and eye details with pastels.

           

Watercolor Gardens

This was a fun watercolor project for my Grade One class.  We first painted 'blobs' of different colors using watercolor paints starting with the lightest color and ending with the darkest.  They painted approximately 6 blobs with each colour. 

When they were dry the students filled in the
remaining background with green paint.
(Need to remove the flash from my camera!)

Using black markers the students drew little circles in each blob and then drew petals by extending lines from the circles to the outer edge of the blobs.  I had them practice first before attempting on their artwork. 



Some children had some difficulty getting their petals to fill the entire paint blob but were able to add extra petals to fill the space they had missed.

Easter Egg Carton Chicks

Here is a simple and fun Easter craft that I got from FamilyFun.go.com. 

Here is the link with instructions:

http://familyfun.go.com/easter/easter-crafts/all-easter-crafts/fancy-feathered-friends-675266/

The kids were thrilled with the results and couldn't wait to take them home.  They looked even cuter when we added their painted easter eggs!

Project I'm considering

  

Pinch Pot clay beavers for Canada theme?

Polar Bears

My Grade Ones made these cute polar bears back in February. 

Materials:

black construction paper

blue construction paper

white cartridge paper

white chalk

black and white oil pastel

black charcoal chalks (optional)

Using white chalk on black construction paper they used the sides of their chalk to rub a round shape for the head and a body.  Two smaller circles made the ears.  Students used their fingers to gently blend the chalk to remove any harsh lines that may have been created.  Black oil pastels were used to create the facial features and the inner ears.  We rubbed a little bit if charcoal under the head to create a bit of a shadow.  Then we cut our the whole polar bear shape.

 I gave each student a precut piece of white cartridge paper and showed them how to carefully tear along one of the longer ends to create our snow.  I would have used white construction paper but find the colour that the paper company calls 'white' to be extremely off-white and when placed beside the white chalk it looked more like dirty snow or slush!

We then glued our snow to the bottom of the blue construction paper.  This photo is a bit misleading as I actually got the students to glue the polar bear on first and then draw the snowflakes and wind.

The final display in the classroom was adorable!