SchoolArts - December 2011

Early Childhood Studio Lesson

Round

& Round We Go

Ceramics is one of my passions, so I am always thinking about hings elementary students can do successfully with clay. Clay is a medium that everybody loves. When students can actually use what they make, they really get excited. Plus, parents will treasure the work for years. I do this project with my first-grade students during the second half of the school year. Lynn Beck

Getting Started with Clay

To get started, everyone gets a piece of manila or newsprint paper and a paper or Styrofoam bowl to make a clay piece the size and shape of the bowl. I write students’ names on the outside bottom of the bowls with a permanent marker. I also cut small blocks of clay for each student out of a wedged bag of clay.

I show students how to pinch off
a small amount of clay and roll it
into a ball the size of a large marble.
Since students will work on the piece
of paper, I show them how to put the
ball on the paper and smash it flat
with their hands. They really get into
this part! The flattened clay disc is
then placed into the bottom of the
bowl. This process is repeated until
the inside of the bowl is covered with
overlapping clay discs.

leaving a scalloped edge, or they can
blend it even with the edge of the
bowl. When the bowls are leather hard,
they will easily pop out of the Styro-
foam molds as they dry and shrink.
Write students’ names on the bottom
of their clay pieces
at this point.
Make sure the
bowls dry com-
pletely before fir-
ing, especially if
they are on the thick side. Glaze after
bisque firing and fire again. Watch the
joyful faces as you return the bowls to
your eager students!

When students can actually
use what they make, they
really get excited.

Lynn Beck is an art teacher at Washington Elementary School, Bangor Area School District, Bangor, Pennsylvania. beckl@ bangorsd.org

Finishing the Bowls During the second class, students finish adding the discs and start blending the clay so the inside of the bowl is smooth. (The disc pattern will remain on the outside.) Demonstrate how to begin at the bottom and blend all the lines outward with your fingers. Students can stop blending just short of the edge so the top of the discs remain,