Coil Pots

Coil Pots 

3rd Grade

A few years ago, we started a collaboration between art and science in third grade.  In art class, students learn about the process of creating ceramic objects and construct their own coil pots.  After building their pots, the clay is left to dry and then fired in a kiln.  This first firing is called the bisque firing.  After the bisqueware comes out of the b, it is ready to be painted with glaze.  Glaze is a paint specially formulated for ceramics and fuses to the clay during the second, glaze firing.  After this firing, students used their coil pots in science class to plant seeds and watch them grow.  Its truly amazing to see both of these transformations!

"Wet Work" with Clay

Applying Glaze

Completed Pots

Each year the creations get more personality!

Growing plants on display in the library for the annual art show.

1st Days of Art: 2nd Grade

Save Fred!

We're back with another creative challenge, and this time the stakes are high!   Fred the worm, who is not very skilled at swimming, is lost at sea on a capsized boat.   Can you and your partners save Fred by retrieving his life preserver and putting it on him?  Here's the catch, you can't touch Fred or his things with your hands!  Only paperclips!



Teams discovered new ways to use the paper clips, like unfolding them and creating hooks.  They also saw the power of teamwork, noting that none of them could save Fred alone.  Some teams failed multiple times before rescuing Fred, and that's okay!   The important part is to keep trying and to try to learn from the failures!

1st Days of Art: 5th Grade

You guessed it folks, we're back with another creativity challenge!  This time with 5th grade!   5th graders worked with partners to complete this problem solving activity.   Students were given a piece of paper with a problem on it, for example; "Create a way to reverse a bad haircut" or "Create a cell phone that never needs to be charged." It was definitely a challenge to not only think abstractly, but to make a creation with nothing but straws, tin foil and tape. Students worked though the ambiguity and thought up all sorts of solutions from the silly, to the thoughtful, to the inspiring. Scroll down to see a few examples.

A group testing if their boat would actually float.

"Imagine a new public transportation system"
This group created a form of bubble transportation.  I wanna try!

"Imagine a way to keep your pillow as cool on the other side."  This pillow
has straws on the inside, acting like an air conditioner.  Plug it in
and have a fully cool pillow!

"I need to transport 1,000 lbs of metal across the country without a motorized vehicle"
This structure operates by expelling air out the straws.  One is on each side to make maneuvering different directions easier.

Thanks again to CMA for the inspiration!

First Days of Art: 6th Grade

6th Grade

Creativity circle challenge!  We started 6th grade art by talking about creativity and engaging in a creative challenge.  6th graders each received a sheet of paper filled with circles.  Their challenge was to transform as many of the circles as possible in 10 minutes.  Some students were unsure how to begin, but the persevered and thought of many unique solutions!

Check out Ben's swiss cheese.  With just a few holes and some yellow he transformed his whole paper into something new.

Zane changed the orientation of his paper and combined many circles to create a fish.Paige completed her whole sheet with a variety of solutions!Cece began with an emoji theme but soon transformed it into a screening of a movie!