Clay People and Their Pets

After my grade 6’s had made their 2D figure in an environment, they created a 3D figure with an animal of their choice.

The brief :

Person must be sitting and stable.

Animal must be warm-blooded.

Animal and person must be fused (joined) so that one does not go missing from the other when they are dry.

Lesson 1 – for the basics of both animal and person.

Lesson 2 – for the details and refining (using clay tools, toothpicks, tongue depresses and water).

Those children who did not make one or other figure in the first lesson did not get more clay in the second but had to creatively make a plan.

The lesson was success.

The students peer assessed at the end of the 2nd lesson and I kept the best for the 3rd term exhibit.  I really hope they last since we do not have a kiln to fire them.

Names – Who are you again?

 I have a tough time most days remembering the name of the child or person I am speaking to.  I remember faces well.  Even when I haven’t taught them for three of four years they still look familiar to me.  One little lady, who I nicknamed “Barbie” has grown up a lot and become more beautiful with every year but I still recognise her easily.  However… names… they just don’t stick.  Often I will ask what their favourite colour is and say their name with the colour.  Sometimes this really helps and the names stick but not always.

To help this year, with all my new faces, I asked the grade 1’s to make their names as an art piece.

We sat together and cut the pattern around the edges of the page using the snowflake pattern technique which is where you fold often and cut so that when you unfold the pattern is repeated and the same – very pretty.

We drew our names in our favourite colours and decorated the insides of the “open” letters. The kids call open letters “bubble” letters.  It makes sense but I encourage them to not make them with round edges.

They were to put their favourite things like sport or animals in the background of the names and decorate the boarders – or “frame” as they prefer me to say.

Speaking of children “preferring to say” – have you ever asked a child to colour in their background and seen them turn their page over and begin to colour?  Its crazy! I find that if they don’t understand what I mean I show them what I meant and ask them how they would tell another person to do the action.  Then we can compare my way and their way and together understand both ways.

My grade 1’s are cute, so cute and not as tiring as grade 2’s and 3’s.  Perhaps because I only teach the grade 1’s in groups of 12 and not the whole class.  Much more manageable.

 

Contour Line Model

  

Grade 4’s drew me.  Scary to see how the children interpret me but I didn’t want any child to miss time drawing while being a model.  I also find the children are not happy about the model changing when I swap the children to give them turns to draw.  Sitting for long periods is really difficult for them too.

They drew with one line, unbroken and continuous.  This gives the picture a certain style and forces the children to focus on the subject more.

We then dyed the work in a splotchy fashion with a sponge dipped in a tea and coffee mix – coffee alone would be fine but I was hoping the tea would help cut some of the stickiness of the coffee.

Next lesson we used related colours to colour certain self-chosen parts of the work.  They were not to touch the black pen lines so as to create a stained window look.  When they did this properly it looked gorgeous.

Related colours: When I explain this to the learners I tell them they are the colours in a family.  For example green is the baby of yellow and blue, orange is the baby of red and yellow.  Therefore, these groups are colours that are related to each other.  The kids were allowed to choose two related colours (like blue and green, yellow and green etc.) and use every version/tone of those colours that they could find between my pencils and theirs in their pencil cases.

So…in marking these pictures I’m looking for

• one line used
• two related colours used
• use of space
• complete

The picture does not need to look just like me or even like a female necessarily.