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!

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: