Ceramic Landscape Tiles

Ceramic Landscape Tiles 

4th Grade 

Students began this tile making process by brainstorming ideas for their tile and sketching a plan.  They used foreground, middle ground and background to show depth of space.  Some students chose to make their worlds realistic while others created imaginary places.  We looked at the work of contemporary ceramic artist, Amanda Smith, for some inspiration.

Planning and Creation

Work by Amanda Smith

To make the tile, students first rolled clay slabs.  They then added details through sculpting, scoring and slipping, stamping, and carving. 

The color was added through two different processes.  Some students colored their tile with oil pastel and then dipped it in watered-down acrylic paint.  The oil pastel resists the paint and the paint is absorbed into any remaining ceramic areas.  

The other choice was using glaze.  Glaze is a paint specially formatted for use on clay. After the glaze is applied, the piece is returned to the kiln where the heat melts the glaze and changes the color.

Clay Spirit Animals

Clay Spirit Animals

5th Grade 

Students began this unit by experimenting with different clay techniques.  After looking at Native American totem poles and images of patronuses (from Harry Potter), students thought about their personalities and interests and chose an animal to be their spirit animal.   Students had the choice of making a slab mug, box, or a sculpture for their project.  

Working with clay included rolling slabs, sculpting clay, scoring and slipping, carving, and adding texture.

Glazing:

Rubik's cube inspiration

Completed works:

Shadow Puppets

Shadow Puppets

3rd Grade 

Third graders practiced a lot of creative thinking and collaboration while creating their shadow puppet shows!  In small groups, students experimented with paper cutting to create puppets.  Students had to think flexibly to develop characters that would show up via shadow.   "You mean if I just color the face it won't show up?"  Nope!  What can you do instead?   Through the use of paper, brads, chopsticks, and hole punchers, students shaped many unique characters.  Finally, groups wrote scripts and performed their shows for the class.  Unfortunately, the files are too large to post on here, so screen shots will have to do.  Maybe you can use your imagination to create the stories?

Testing the puppets.

You may not realize it, but one of those men is Ronald Reagan.

Swiss Army knife character

Check out this fairy!

Setting the scene

Belle and Lumiere