Above: Finished Elephants drying out and waiting to be fired.

             

Elephants: Part 2 

Time is a valuable thing in the classroom, as I am learning. 

Since we ran out of time the last class period, Mrs. Butikofer kindly made space in her schedule for me to come finish up the project with the kids 2 weeks later.  We were tight for time, between spelling tests, recess, and early dismissal, so she set up a table in the corner of the room and I worked with 5 students at a time, slowly rotating through all of them.  Having a small group like that was easy to manage, and it built anticipation in the kids who had to wait their turn.  This made them eager to work on it and not dawdle or fool around.  

I gave the students the option to stay in from recess to work on their elephants, and a handful did!  Any 2nd grader who it willing to give up recess for an art project must really be excited for it. I love seeing their enthusiasm!

What I’ve learned…

However, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this project, it’s plan ahead for time.  I miscalculated how long it would take to finish the elephants, and if I could do the project over I would have done a simpler project that could be done in an hour and a half, like a rolled out python or something.   Elephants are a very hard project, what with inserting wet newspaper, scoring, slipping, attaching, and forming.  I was pleased to see that 2nd graders could do the project, and I was very proud of them, it is just taking a long time.  

That being said, once the new school year starts, we will start a new habitat project covering the Arctic.   During that time we will squeeze in time to paint the elephants.  I can’t wait to see how they turn out!

In the mean time, enjoy Christmas Break and your loved ones!

Merry Christmas Everyone and a Happy New Year!

Above: Still drying...

Clay Elephants!

Hello again parents!
We finally got to play with clay in the classroom!  It was so fun, but sooooo messy.  I didn't anticipate the amount of clean up I needed to stay after and do.
We were learning about the Savannah habitat, and I thought it would be fun to make a herd of animals for the Savannah.  I decided on elephants because they have strong sturdy legs that wouldn't break off, like giraffes or gazelles.

The first thing I did was show the students videos on how to score and slip pieces together (which is SO IMPORTANT when working with clay), then I showed them a video of how to insert moist newspaper inside of the legs, body, and head so the elephants won't crack in the kiln.  After that, I did a demo, then turned them all loose to make their elephants.  They followed me in a step by step approach, which Ms. Butikofer so wisely recommended, so we were all on the same step most of the time. Toward the end, some kids moved ahead, so we'll have to catch everybody up to the same place next time.

I thought we would finish up in one day, but I was way off.  We're going to need two more weeks before they're done.  One week for finishing forming and reinforcing attachments, and another for  firing and painting.  We opted to paint instead of glaze because Ms. Butikofer already had acrylic paints on hand that were nice Savannah colors.  

I was so impressed by the dexterity of these second graders! This was a hard project and they jumped right in an did it!  That just shows, with a little be of extra time these students can do amazing things. I can't wait to see how they turn out.

I'll be up again tomorrow finishing up phase one.

Until next time!