Teaching Year 3 is always fun, but sometimes teaching the simple things are the hardest. We have a double art class once a week and for many teachers- including myself, teaching 'painting' is difficult. It makes it even harder when children say they have finished their master piece only 3 minutes into the class!
Clay work and pottery on the other hand is fun for everyone and although students initially respond with 'I can't do that' after seeing examples, somehow they all achieve.
Students started off making a clay base- roughly 4 inches in diameter and half an inch thick. Clay sausages were rolled out and built up in layers.
Coil pots date back to the early Bronze Age- if not before. This was our Art-Topic/History curriculum link. Kids loved getting their hands dirty- and faces- somehow!
The school doesn't have a kiln so the pots were never going to be fired. We didn't have to worry too much about rolling the clay and making sure the air bubbles were all out and we didn't have to worry if the clay was too thick. We knew that the sun dried pots could never hold water, but that was not their intention.
Students were allowed to choose their own design and go with it. Some of them needed a little help when the sides fell out. Once the kids saw how I cut a triangle out of the wall and reformed a tighter pot, they were able to do the same if it happened again.
The clay coils were smoothed over both on the inside and outside. This gave the pot its strength and form. During lesson planning, I expected the students to make pots of a similar size to a 'pot-noodle' pot. When I saw their capability, they were all encouraged to keep sculpting.
The previous week, our class had 2 students who left. They both moved overseas, but the class wanted to let them know what they had done in art class. They took photos and as part of a letter writing exercise in English class, they collaboratively wrote a letter that was later posted to them.
All the pots were a success and air dried over a week or so. No cracks had formed and luckily nobody dropped theirs.