Project/Unit Description/Expedition
Students are art researchers working at a museum to create a real or imaginary animal out of clay. Their animal will be on display in the museum so that other students and museum visitors will be able to learn about their creature. Students will use their art knowledge and skill to tell the animal's story and to show its features and characteristics.
This week, the students are using clay slabs as the medium for their art making. They will draw, press into its surface, and add small pieces of clay to their relief drawings in order to create an animal of their choice. In doing so, the students will explore the design elements of form, texture, shape, and line.
They will continue to develop their understanding of the use of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art techniques that they explored during last week’s mask making project. The art that each student produces this week will become part of a short series of lessons in which the students will use art to tell the viewer more about their clay creature’s habitat and features.
Essential Understanding
Artists make observations and learn new techniques to create art.
Inquiry/Learning Target
How form, line, shape, and texture are used to create art using clay
Key Concepts
Texture
Shape
Observation
Technique
Investigate/Discovery
Skill
Identification and simplification of simple shapes within complex shapes and forms
Use of ceramic clay and clay art tools and techniques
Idea generation and implementation
Reflection and analysis of one’s own artwork and the artwork of others
Art Focus
Students will focus on the properties of clay as an art medium and the use of a variety of clay art tools.
Literacy Focus
Students will discuss their own discoveries about the properties of clay and the subject and characteristics of their own artwork.
Documentation
In this week’s art lesson the kindergarten artists began the lesson by experimenting with and observing the properties of the clay itself. They manipulated small balls of clay to learn about its characteristics and then shared their findings with members of their own group. In doing so, the students learned about some of the clay’s capabilities and limitations as an art medium. The students then viewed a demonstration of how to draw an animal’s shape into the wet clay slabs, which helped them review previous drawing techniques and learn to use new tools to draw using clay. After students created their own creatures, a second demonstration was shown to show how to use tools and objects to add texture and detail to their clay animals. The students learned how clay could be formed into long strands of different shapes and thicknesses using extruders and attached to their slab animal. The proper attachment of clay in clay art is an important skill for ceramic artists of all ages to develop. Students then returned to work to use their new knowledge to individualize and elaborated their own artwork.
Students are art researchers working at a museum to create a real or imaginary animal out of clay. Their animal will be on display in the museum so that other students and museum visitors will be able to learn about their creature. Students will use their art knowledge and skill to tell the animal's story and to show its features and characteristics.
This week, the students are using clay slabs as the medium for their art making. They will draw, press into its surface, and add small pieces of clay to their relief drawings in order to create an animal of their choice. In doing so, the students will explore the design elements of form, texture, shape, and line.
They will continue to develop their understanding of the use of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art techniques that they explored during last week’s mask making project. The art that each student produces this week will become part of a short series of lessons in which the students will use art to tell the viewer more about their clay creature’s habitat and features.
Essential Understanding
Artists make observations and learn new techniques to create art.
Inquiry/Learning Target
How form, line, shape, and texture are used to create art using clay
Key Concepts
Texture
Shape
Observation
Technique
Investigate/Discovery
Skill
Identification and simplification of simple shapes within complex shapes and forms
Use of ceramic clay and clay art tools and techniques
Idea generation and implementation
Reflection and analysis of one’s own artwork and the artwork of others
Art Focus
Students will focus on the properties of clay as an art medium and the use of a variety of clay art tools.
Literacy Focus
Students will discuss their own discoveries about the properties of clay and the subject and characteristics of their own artwork.
Documentation
In this week’s art lesson the kindergarten artists began the lesson by experimenting with and observing the properties of the clay itself. They manipulated small balls of clay to learn about its characteristics and then shared their findings with members of their own group. In doing so, the students learned about some of the clay’s capabilities and limitations as an art medium. The students then viewed a demonstration of how to draw an animal’s shape into the wet clay slabs, which helped them review previous drawing techniques and learn to use new tools to draw using clay. After students created their own creatures, a second demonstration was shown to show how to use tools and objects to add texture and detail to their clay animals. The students learned how clay could be formed into long strands of different shapes and thicknesses using extruders and attached to their slab animal. The proper attachment of clay in clay art is an important skill for ceramic artists of all ages to develop. Students then returned to work to use their new knowledge to individualize and elaborated their own artwork.
Students were introduced to working with clay in this weeks lesson. To begin the lesson each student was given a ball of clay and allowed to 'play' and experiment with it and see what happens. Students were not given much instruction besides being asked to try to stretch, and manipulate the clay.
In this clip the student explores his ball of clay after flattening it out. He shows how he uses his drawing utensil and fingers to work the clay and experiment. |
In this video, the student explores breaking off pieces of her clay and using her hands to manipulate the smaller pieces. As seen in the clip, she was even able to correctly name what she made from her process! |
Each student was given their own slab of clay and drawing utensil.
In this clip, the student explains when asked how he was able to make dark lines when drawing his creature into his slab of clay using the drawing utensil. |
|
Next students explored how to make textures to add to their clay creatures by using many different tools including clay extruders.
Upon seeing many examples, students quickly made connections to how they could use different textures and tools. One of the popular responses to the extruders was 'That looks like hair!" other students used the tools with the different sized balls on the ends for his fish exclaiming "I can push this into the clay and it could make bubbles for my fish."
Upon seeing many examples, students quickly made connections to how they could use different textures and tools. One of the popular responses to the extruders was 'That looks like hair!" other students used the tools with the different sized balls on the ends for his fish exclaiming "I can push this into the clay and it could make bubbles for my fish."
|
This video shows how the student made good use of steel wool while making a textures that fit his creature. He is responding to the question of what he was making and how he was able to get the texture to show in the clay. |
Stay tuned for next weeks lesson where students will create a clay habitat for their clay creature!