October 6, 2013

Clay Leaf Bowls

Here is the first step in the clay process.

We are studying texture so of course we had to work in clay. We are learning the differences between real and implied texture. First we made implied texture with awesome leaf print paintings, the next class we made real texture by pressing leaf molds into clay.

It was a great first project to get our feet wet in messy projects like clay and painting, we took it slow and learned the clean up process too. This was fourth and fifth (as you've heard me say before you could do this with a variety of grades depending upon the level of the groups.)

About this year: My classes this year are a lot smaller (most 22-24 instead of all 30!) which I LOVE!!!! I can totally see myself teaching in a place with 18-24 kids in every class for the rest of my career and being completely satisfied. There is something about teaching classes less then 30 that is really condusive to making art. There is always a catch though! In my school this year, the district has all but eliminating para support. Did I mention we are total inclusion! It's hard to imagine how we do it, but my kids have been phenomenal in helping although I try to keep this to a healthy degree so they can work on their art too! This was due to the budget but has made my instruction change. So much of my instructional time is spent keeping special needs students engaged. I miss our paras! Our kids miss them more. It's going to be challenging moving forward with no para support but I will share any solutions I come up with for those of you dealing with the same situations! Good luck this year everyone.

I'll post the results when they paint!





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