In the Art Room: Pandas with Personality by Fourth Grade Artists!

Howdy, friends! I trust that most of y'all have been spending your summery days chillaxin' like these two. Sunny day, cold bevvy, fancy umbrelly and a polka dot bikini? Why, don't mind if I do! My genius fourth grade kids created these Pan-duhz with Personality at the end of the year and I'm still chucklin' at their silliness. 

As y'all might recall, I did share with ya's our annual art show where every masterpiece each and every kiddo created throughout the year was hung all over the place. Like, we're talking around 2000 pieces of art. Y'all, we covered every inch of that school...so much so that I was a breath away from hanging some artwork in the bathroom stalls (which reminds me: does anyone else love those stall-ads as much as I do?! Although, I gotta tell ya, I do find the restaurant ads a wee bit disturbing when I'm, well, you know. Droppin and ploppin). When I was out for a coupla days for the amazing NAEA convention in San Diego, my awesome sub had the kids create those Party Panda paintings. This proved to be the perfect jumping-off point for our ceramic endeavors. 

Lemme break down for just how the kids created these cuties: 

Day 1: We created the base. To do this, pounded our Cone 06 clay to a cookie thickness. Then we traced a template for our base shapes with wooden skewers. I provided circles, organic shapes or rounded-edge squares. After those were created, the kids created the basic forms of of the panda's body. After our 30 minutes, the kids wrapped their work in a damp paper towel and stowed it in a labeled ziplock bag.

Day 2: I demoed some ideas on how to make a panda head. We looked at a boat load of examples and thought about our fun drawings. The word of the day was personality. The more your panda had, the better. Once the heads were created, the kids started attaching them to the bodies and kind of playing with just how their panda's body would look. Would he be sunbathing? Chillin with the kids? Strummin' a gee-tar...

whilst wearing shades and sportin a big pink bow?

Or glazing their clay pinch pot, as pandas like to do.

Days 3 and 4: On these days the kids really started thinking about details and an environment for their panda...one that would really reflect their panda-nality.

A coupla of my kids recalled that our local zoo had just hosted a red panda exhibit. With that in mind, this cutie was created.

I love the sweet gaze of the baby panda to it's mama.

Once our friends were fired, we glazed them with 3 coats of Mayco Stroke and Coat. My fourth grade friends have created a masterpiece outta clay every year since kindergarten so they are pretty much like experts at this whole process. Hence this panda-monium. 

Speaking of pandaemonium...

Y'all, this week, I'm currently at the amazing Tennessee Arts Academy and gearing up for this Thursday's online conference with The Art of Education which means my life this week is crazy-happy-fun-busy. So don't ask me why I thought it would be a good idea to start the Artsy Book Club this week. Thereforeness, I've decided to officially begin posting next week...but y'all can start reading Teach like a Pirate by Dave Burgess and/or Printmaking Unleashed by Traci Bautista any ole time, ermkay?! I'll be back soon with a full report on the Arts Academy...and I hope to chat with ya at the AOE conference. Til then, strap on that bikini, slap on that sunscreen and enjoy these summer days while you can!

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In the Art Room: A Pinch Pot Mascot

Well, kids, as you read this, I'm heading out the door and takin' a vacay to charming Charleston with a coupla muthahs. That'd be my dear, albeit totally crazy, mother and my mother-in-law (who will be in need of your prayers as she contends with a double dose of deranged). If one of us doesn't make it back, it'll be my mom who I'll prolly leave tied to a chair in the hotel room with tape over her mouth (true story: in elementary school, my mom talked so much the teacher resorted to taping her mouth closed. She promptly chewed through the tape and commenced chatting. This is what I'll be dealing with). Wish me luck, kids!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share with you these here 2nd grade Pinch Pot Tigers! At my school, the tiger is our mascot so the kids were totally excited to bring the Johnson Tiger to life. Some kids went the traditional Bengal orange and black tiger route...

While others created a white tiger. Did you know that the white of the tiger's fur is a recessive gene? Some mistake them for being albino but that's not so. Many white tigers are bred but, because there are so few of them, there is usually inbreeding. This results in all sorts of birth defects and also has scientists considering renaming the White Tiger the Kentucky Tiger (so sorry, Kentucky friends. That was a low [although hilarious, right?!] blow).

The kids loved creating these tigers. I was so thrilled to see them painstakingly paint those wee tiger faces. That's when you know they are in love with their project, when they put forth so much effort. 

So just how'd they do it? Well, we started out with these supplies:

* Low-fire clay (I'm a Cone 06 gal, myself)

* Toothbrush (preferably your mom's or mother-in-laws, depending on who you're ticked at)

* A skewer

* Aqua

* A clay mat. Canvas works great.

To create these bad boys, we used 2-3 thirty minute classes. On the first day, we made a pinch pot and tiger legs. For the pot, I tell the kids to begin by rolling a sphere and placing it in the palm of your hand. Notice that the sphere isn't perfect. I try to discourage the kids from rolling a perfect sphere because they will do it FOREVER thus drying out their clay and using up precious art time.

Next up: stick your thumb in that sphere of clay until it looks as though your thumb has an afro. Do not puncture your thumb all the way through your clay as that would result in a clay donut. And don't nobody like clay donuts. They's nasty.

Pop that thumb out and use your pinching fingers to evenly pinch the sides of your pot. It should be of cookie-thickness. Once completed, the kids are given another piece of clay. For this, they'll divide the clay in half and roll two coils that are about 4" in length. I have rulers out on the tables for this reason. Once complete, the kids stack their pot onto their coils, wrap it in a damp paper towel and put it in a labeled zip lock bag until next class.

The following class, we chat about making tiger faces. I don't like to tell the kids an exact way of creating a face so we go through many options. When working with clay, I like to stress that you can make anything outta clay with a sphere, a slab or a coil. We chat about the different features a tiger might have and what, out of those three things, we might use to create them.

When demoing, I always stress that you gotta slip and score. I have the kids use the toothbrush and that cup of water for this purpose. After this chat, the kids work on creating the heads. Because of the detail they like to create, most take the entire time making that clay head. Once finished, it gets placed in the zip lock bag along with the pinch pot and coils.

This young artist didn't like my cartoon-y version of a tiger. I had a buncha tiger photos on display as well as one pulled up on my brand new big screen T.V. (ya'll, this thing makes me feel like I'm in a sports bar, it's that huge). I love how she created a three-dimensional muzzle for her tiger and that painting job, gah! I love my 2nd graders. 

On the final day, we toothbrushed and added the heads and legs. Now, I'm not gonna lie, those legs had been in that zip lock bag for days. So they were a little dried out and noncooperative. To solve that, some kids opted to have their tigers laying down (as the clay was too weak to support the pinch pot) while others crumpled up newspaper and used that to prop up the tiger's legs. 

After the legs and head were attached, some kids created a tail. I had to really encourage them to make strong thick tails that did not protrude. So most rolled a coil for the tail and then turned that into a spiral before attaching to the pot. If the kids happened to have extra time when finished, I told 'em that they could create something to go along with their tiger. However, I reminded them that I'd only fire it if they made sure to slip and score. 

This young artist created a baby tiger to accompany the mama. 

And this one decided to have a mouse riding on the back of the tiger.

Another Kentucky Tiger.

Once the tigers were complete, the kids glazed then with Mayco's Stroke and Coat. It's my fave as the colors are just perfect. The kids spent an art class with the World's Smallest Paint Brushes to create these lovelies. When it comes to glazing, I only have two rules: Don't Glaze the Bottom (because the glaze, when melted, will adhere to the kiln shelf) and Don't Layer Three Zillion Different Colors of Glaze as this will result in an unappealing mix of muddy colors once fired. 

And there you have it, friends! A Pinch Pot Mascot that's both functional ("oh, my tiger can hold my earrings!") and adorbs. Until next time, wish me luck with those mothers and have yourself a great week, ya'll!

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In the Art Room: Art Show Part 2

I love this sweet interaction between the ladybug and the snail by a second grade artist.

A week ago today, I was scrambling to get the last of the clay projects fired and the art room ready for a display of well over 300 clay projects. Now, on this here last day of school (sniff!), the art room is empty. And all of those clay projects are proudly displayed on someone's mantle, nightstand, coffee table or kitchen window sill. Such a happy thought.

Thankfully, hubs was on hand during the art show as my photographer. He managed to snap these photos of the clay display in my room. I'm attaching links to my clay lessons, if you are interested. Thank you for sharing this happy art show memory with me! Next up on In the Art Room: the Walk like an Egyptian performance. Last week's In the Art Room: Art Show Part 1 can be found here.

The Egyptian entrance to the art room. So glad hubs got a photo of this as it will be coming down soon. Next year's theme is in the works.

Entering at their own risk.

This is the sight you are greeted with when you enter my room. This is usually where my drum set and gong are...but for the sake of my sanity, these things were put away during the art show. Again, this is all going away shortly. I cannot wait to begin work on my new theme.

Because all of my first through fourth grade students had ceramics to display (the kindergarten kids clay projects were Butterfly Reliefs that you can see here), I had to make room for well over 300 projects. I used every table I had as well as all of my counter space for display.

The infamous fish taco clay project. I love this lesson, it's always a hit with the kids. These fish were created by my first grade students. This lesson idea comes courtesy of The Clay Lady.

I've altered the directions a bit, so here it is: lay a texture, like lace or burlap, onto your work surface; pound to Oreo thickness and remove from texture; using a skewer, trace a circle template; fold like a taco and pinch closed with the exception of an opening for the mouth; add eyes, fins, lips and viola! You found Nemo!

My counter covered in ceramics. Because the kids have also been learning about the artist Claude Monet and his garden in Giverny, all of our clay projects are pond-themed. You can see our Mammoth Monet Mural here. In keeping with that theme, I had the kids create drawings of their clay projects, like fish, lily pads and frogs. These drawings were then cut out and used as the "table clothes" you see draped over my cabinets and tables.

Sweet Monet-inspired lily pads created by my second grade artists. You can find the complete lesson here.

To decorate my word wall cabinets, I hung up these Flower Pot Collages that my wee kindergarten friends had just completed.

The clay frogs stole the show. I love big-mouthed and bright-eyed paint-brush-holding frog created by a super sweet third grade artist. Check out the froggy lesson here.

To spice up the display a little bit, we mixed the frogs, fish and lily pads up a bit.

With my former student teacher, the fourth graders created these sculptures of fictional heroes. This was a great lesson she created...the kids were to come up with ideas of what characteristics a hero would have and create a hero based from there. Some of the heroes were glazed while others where painted copper.

A seated heroine contemplating her awesomeness.

At the time, the students were also learning about the Statue of Liberty. Because she is made from copper, some of the students painted their heroes with copper paint.

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