Sunday, January 13, 2013

Clay Time....

We're beginning clay projects.  After experimenting with some other brands of air dry clay last year, I'm back to using Crayola Air Dry clay.  It's not so great, but I haven't found any other brand that's reasonably priced and better.

3rd graders are making these cute BUNNIES.  They're hollow in the middle so they can kind of be used as finger puppets too.





2nd graders are making CUPCAKE Boxes.  Next time I need to remember to give kids a ball of clay closer to the size of a golf ball than the size of an apricot for making the bottom of their cupcake.  The walls of clay were thicker than I prefer, hopefully they'll dry okay.




Lots of messy fun ----- a few kids were absent ----  that's one of my biggest challenges in being an art teacher.  So time consuming helping kids get caught up who've been absent.  In the past I worked at a large school, so it was virtually impossible to offer all the time necessary for all the absent kids.  Now I offer make-up arrangements for absent kids.

How do you deal with absent students from your art classes?  Would love to get your ideas.

6 comments:

MarieE said...

At my school we have a school wide silent reading time that coincides with my end-of-the-day prep. I let kids who need to catch up come at this time- and they love getting to be in the quiet afternoon art room. I also help out absent kids by making sure their table save a paper or material with the absent kid's name on it in their folder and have a tablemate explain the previous week's lesson.

Mª Rosa said...

Me ha encantado tu bloc i tus ideas!!!

mrs. c said...

I am a pre-k teacher and our curriculum has several air-dry clay art activities. I have tried many different kinds and my newest and most favorite is COLD PORCELAIN. It is so easy to make-white glue, cornstarch,a little baby oil and lemon juice. We color it with washable markers, just dot the marker into the clay and presto. It takes about 3 day to completely air dry, it does shrink a little. We seal it with a water-based acrylic. This stuff has a great feel and my 4 year olds have created the neatest animals. You can use foil to make a form and put the cold porcelain over it. Let me know if you use it.

Tisha Smith said...

Hi Mrs. C.,
That COLD PORCELAIN sounds neat! I went to your blog and saw the wonderful black bird your daughter made using it!
Thanks so much!!!
Tisha

Unknown said...

Absentee students.....if its a one day project, they just miss out. If its a multiple day project, I have a fast finisher start the project for the absent student. Then they just pick up for the next lesson or I use the example for the absent student to continue with. I have no opportunities in my schedule to give students extra time except for after school and most often they don't show up.

JM's Virtual Gallery said...

Those bunnies look kinda like Totoros. X3