First Grade Ceramic Frogs

Materials Needed

• cardboard for tables
• clay
• tools
• newspaper
• glaze

My first graders made ceramic frogs for the first time this year. We began the unit by reading the book The Icky, Sticky Frog by Dawn Bentley. The book has great illustrations of the frog and the students loved the long, sticky tongue that they could actually touch.

After we finished reading the book, we did a quick review of clay and it's properties- dries out if we play with it too much, crumbles, etc. Then I passed out a piece of clay to each of them. I demonstrated how to roll it into a ball, while I counted to 5 (this helps them know when to stop). We then made out pinch pot by sticking our thumb into the clay and then using our fingers (crab claws) to pinch around the pot to create the walls. When they had a pot, I showed them how to set the pot on its side to create a big, open mouth for their frog.

I then passed out another piece of clay and had them divide it into 4 pieces. They rolled these into tubes about the size of their finger and I showed them how to attach these to the body of their frog to create their legs.

The last part of construction was rolling a small piece of clay into a smaller tube and attaching it inside the mouth for the tongue and then rolling 2 small spheres for the eyes. These were attached on the top of the mouth.

After the frogs were fired in the kiln, I placed glaze on the tables and the students were able to glaze their frogs. Pin It