First Grade Grecian Urns

 For this project, I got to use my new extruder again. I am hooked!!!

First grade made Grecian urns using red clay- which they thought was awesome! They had only ever used Longhorn White, so this was a completely new experience for them.

They made the basic pinch pot and we worked to build our walls up, so that our pots would be taller.

I gave them 3 coils. One was used to create a base for the urn to sit on. The other two were used to

create handles.

I fired the urns and then they used black glaze to paint patterns. Next year, I think I might just use black tempera. Many of the students had a hard time getting the black on heavy enough for it to really contrast with the red clay.

Then I gave each table a bowl of transparent glaze and showed them how to paint the entire piece until it was completely covered. They freaked out at first, because my transparent is blue. We then had the discussion about glue- when you put it on your

paper, it is white, but when it dries, it is clear. This was going to happen to their blue glaze. It would be clear when I took it out of the kiln.

This appeased them and when they saw them in the glass display case the next week- smiles all around!

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Fifth Grade Ming Dynasty Vases

 Fifth grades study of Asia moved on to the Ming Dynasty. The students looked at different examples of Ming pottery. I showed them pieces of varying sizes and shapes and then we looked at how they were painted.

The students designed their own version of a Ming vase in their sketchbooks. I told them that we would be glazing the entire piece solid white and then they would be able to choose their own color scheme to add their design, instead of using only blue, as in the Ming vases.

On the day that we were ready to start the clay, I used my extruder (for the first time!) to make coils for the students. Ideally, I would have loved for them to use the extruder to make the coils themselves. However, since I only have 45 minutes and there are almost 30 students, I expedited the process by having them pre-made.

I gave each student a piece of clay to make a basic pinch pot. Some of them made bowls and others worked really hard to make the forms that they had seen the previous week.

I told the students that they had to use at least 1 coil in their project, but it was up to them how it was used. Some of them stuck with only 1 coil. However, many of them went wild with the coils! They loved it!

I absolutely love how different each vase/pot looks.

I fired them and the next week, I had them use opaque white glaze to cover the entire project. I pre-poured glaze into cups and my rule was that they had to use every drop in the cup. That was my
way of knowing that they were using enough glaze

to coat the entire piece.

Then I had plates with different color schemes set up. My students are fascinated with cool colors, so many of them used that color scheme. However, I did get a few monochromatic pieces and a few  complementary colors.

I currently have all of their pieces on display in our glass case in the entryway of our school. They look so nice!

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