What's Going on in the Classroom: Felt and Clay Finally!

What ever happened to those last two projects in the art room?! I posted about the beginning of them, but never showed you all the end. I'll tell you what happened, summer did! But better late than never! So here are the finished wet felting and clay pieces that finished up our year in high school art!

With all the wet felted pieces finished up, they were ready to sew together to create one large wall hanging that will be displayed in our classroom for future classes to see. Students had to create a wet felted piece with a design sewn on it using three different stitches, including one that went around the border.

Now for the final glazed clay pieces. These were some amazing pieces and everyone got very creative, despite the limited glaze colors available to them. Enjoy our final creations!

What's Going on in the Classroom: Last Days in the Art Room

Ah! Only a couple more weeks and there is so much to do! So we finished out practice pieces for our clay unit and they are everywhere. First step to getting them out of the room, wax the bottoms!

Seriously, there were clay pieces on every surface in the room! After they wax the bottom, students used a dipping method to glaze their pieces.

See all the glazed pieces! They're ready for the kiln. We're waiting on putting the last batch through currently. While they were glazing, they were also working on their final, larger clay pieces. Here are a couple of examples, but I will post more when they're glazed and out of the kiln!

For the last project of the year, we are doing wet felting. This is a process where wool roving is combined with hot water and soap causing the to fibers shrink, creating a piece of felt! We did this whole process outside and it was a ton of fun, with the sun shining! Now we are learning three different stitches and embroidering a border and designs on our pieces. My hope is to sew them all together to make one large wall hanging! More pictures to come as we finish!

Cupcake Containers- Kindergarten

In Kindergarten, our curriculum calls for teaching the students how pinch and roll clay to make a piece of artwork. We decided to make clay cupcake containers! The kinders were so excited!
First we had a day where we just got comfortable with the clay. Students smushed and smashed and made all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, they had to give the clay back.

During the next class, we talked about how air bubbles can form in the clay and how we need to get rid of those so our pieces don't explode in the kiln. We all wedged our clay and then rolled into a ball. Using thumbs and then pinching, students made a hole and then enlarged it. This created a small pinch pot. I showed everyone how to use their fingers to smooth the top edge. Then using a small wooden tool, students created a cupcake holder texture on the outside of their pinch pot by lightly etching vertical lines into the clay.

For our third class, students rolled out a looooong 'snake' of clay. A lot of students had trouble doing this at first, but after a kick start from the teacher, they got along just fine. Then the clay was laid on the edge of the cupcake bottom (which is by now dry so it's more sturdy!) and coiled around until it came to a point. I did a quick demo on how to lightly smudge the clay together so that the coiled 'snake' would stick. ( I also went back after the kids had left and made sure they were all secure, mostly on the inside of the coil so as not to ruin the frosting effect.) The kids then rolled out small balls of clay to attach to the top as cherries!

Out last class was painting/glazing the cupcakes. Since I have a limited amount of glaze, the students got to select a glaze for the icing and then we painted the cherries red. We're still waiting to do the last step, which is to paint the cupcake holder or the bottom of our cupcake container. We will be using tempera paint for this so that the kids have a wider variety of colors to choose from. They are so cute and charming. For the record, I borrowed the idea from a picture I saw on Artsonia, found here. I modified it a bit for kinders and I simply used this project to teach clay techniques, we didn't talk about Wayne T. It was so fun to do this project, the littles love clay!

Pipenburg Studio Visit and Positive and Negative Space

Remember last post I said that we had Monday and Tuesday off of school for our 'mid winter break'? Well that wasn't quite true. We actually only had Monday off. Tuesday was a professional development day. Luckily the art teachers of the district banded together and decided that instead of sitting through some meetings that usually don't apply to our subject area, we were going to head to an artist's studio for a day of relaxation and rejuvenation centered around making art and being inspired. It was great! We went to Gail and Robert Piepenburg's studio. If you haven't checked them out yet, you should right here. They have some amazing pieces.

We did a small workshop of naked raku firing, which is an interesting process where the slip and glaze that is applied to your piece of art work is called 'sacrificial'. Meaning that it's only there to provide a shield for those areas that you don't want to be blackened by the smoke. Once cooled, the slip and the glaze are chipped off to reveal a white and black finish. It was an interesting technique and we got varied results, unfortunately I don't have pictures of them, but it you check out the Piepenburg's website, you will for sure see some expert examples.

 

 

 

In the art room, third grade students are working on positive and negative space. This is a tricky concept to grasp. So we're breaking it down and just talking about how all the spaces in a piece of artwork are important, even the 'empty' ones. In order to illustrate this concept, we're constructing Notan pieces. We used this video here to introduce the concept. Then we made ours a little bit differently by putting the smaller paper to the side instead of in the middle. We used scissors and... Exacto knives.... gasp! There were strict rules but the kids were great and we only had minor mishaps.

A Color for Every Hour of the Day

First of all, I hope everyone is staying warm! We don't have school again tomorrow because of how cold it is. I don't know if I mentioned it, but we haven't had a full week since before Christmas break. Either because of snow, ice, cold, or other holidays. At this point I can say that I'm ready to be in the class room for a full week. Snow days are nice once in awhile as a surprise to lighten your week. However, I am all caught up on extra work and ready to be teaching those kiddos some art! We did have school today so let me catch you up.

Here's an update on the clay bowls and spoons that the fourth graders are working away at industriously. They are glazing and doing an excellent job, with only a few students forgetting and painting the bottoms of their bowls :) Here are some images of them glazing up a storm.

But what I want to focus on in this post are the wonderful Color Wheel Clocks that our third graders have finished. It was quiet the process. We reviewed color theory and learned some new things about Intermediate Colors as well. We spent a whole class period reviewing how to use a ruler and learning how to use a protractor, (look Geometry in 3rd grade! Math and Art!) in order to divide our circles up evenly. Then using only yellow, blue, and red, students mixed and painted a twelve section color wheel! They were fabulous!

That finished, they outlined and numbered the twelve sections to resemble a clock. This part was a little tricky considering that the numbers some times turned out upside down. Everyone had to be sure to keep the color wheel still and not rotate it while writing the numbers. The 12 always had to be right side up!

I spent some time laminating and all that was left was to put on the clock mechanism.

Each mechanism came with the parts that were needed. They were left over from the pervious art teacher so I'm not sure where they came from, but they were easy to figure out. Students were given a cardboard circle to go behind the clock for extra support. Each clock had a hour, minute, and second hand, all battery operated with on AA battery. So far we've gotten great reports from students that they are hanging on their walls and ticking away!

 

Back after forever! Talking about pattern!

So hello to all. I know here the holiday break was much longer than we expected. We had several days off because of snow and temperatures. I haven't had a full week since then because of various other commitments, I think next week will be my first full week since before Christmas! Craziness.

We came back in full swing in the art room. The 4th graders are right in the middle of clay. We will be glazing today and next week so as soon as those start coming out of the kiln I will be posting pictures.

I wanted to highlight a kindergarten project this week. The students are learning about pattern. I've found that anytime I can give them non-traditional objects to help illustrate the new concept, they really experience success. So we talked about pattern and some students caught on right away and gave examples from their imagination, the room, their clothes etc...


Then we busted out marshmallows and tooth picks! The children were told to work together at their tables and come up with several different patterns. Of course they were instructed not to eat the marshmallows because so many little hands were touching them! Germs!
 Let me tell you, this kept them entertained for a good long while. Longer than I was expecting. I hope the chance to construct and manipulate the patterns they were creating will help cement their learning for the projects that we will be doing in the next couple of weeks involving patterns.

Clay!

I missed a week of posting! Last week was crazy! I was out for a couple of days because I am participating in a professional learning cohort on 21st Century Learners and Education. Hopefully as that research develops I will be posting more about it. But for now, suffice it to say that it kept me busy last week and I wasn't able to post.

Maybe it's insane of me but the 4th grade classes are doing pinch pot bowls and spoons out of clay before Christmas break! We are attempting to have them all done by then so that they can dry out and I can fire them before the students get back in January. Then students can take their time glazing their pieces. I wanted to do these classes early to also have time to do clay with other grades depending on the supplies we have left.

 

So last week we had a day where we talked about the basic terms involved in making things with clay. Firing, Leather Hard, Bone Dry, Coil, Pinch, Slab etc... click here for an awesome worksheet to hand out to students. We learned about the tools of a ceramicist: loop tool, clay knife, wire tool, rib etc... and also we looked at some non-traditional tools that could be used such as a comb or a fork or material. We also took a mini tour of the kiln so that everyone knew what it looks like and what it does. Then students spent the second half of class simply experiencing the medium. The excitement in the room was inspiring! I don't have to work very hard to get everyone pumped up about making things out of clay.

This week students are going to be making the spoons. And then next week they will make bowls. Their only guidelines are it has to be in a pinch pot style and they must use texture of some kind and the bowl and the spoon have to obviously belong together. They can make that connection however they want; similar style, texture or coloring.

On a side note, I was asked to hang some of our fabulous student artwork up in the administration building. It looks great! Here some of the photos: