3rd Grade Clay Fish Sculptures

Third Grade students are creating fish sculptures out of clay. Students here are adding side fins and eyes using the score and slip method.

Students then added texture and different kinds of lines with the pin or needle tools. Students also had to add gills and a mouth.


Last, students painted one color of glaze onto the fired clay sculptures. Using one color creates UNITY, a principle of art we were studying with this particular lesson. Look for these beautiful sculptures in the hallway at school soon!

2nd Grade Akuaba Dolls

In celebration of Black History month, second graders are studying African art from Ghana. The Akan tribe creates akuaba dolls out of clay or wood. Students choose one of the three styles to create a clay doll of their own. They designed the dolls details using geometric shapes.

Here students are cutting the shape of the dolls out of a clay slab.

Students then drew the details onto the clay surface using a pin or needle tool. Our last step will be adding the African colors to the dolls with glaze.

1st Grade Self Portrait Collage

This is one of my all-time favorite projects! First Graders have been patiently working on their self portrait collages for a few weeks now. We work step-by-step and really concentrate on details that make the portraits come alive and look very realistic. Here are a few works in progress. We learned about symmetry, overlapping, and folding techniques.

Kinder Pattern Paintings

Kinder students drew beautiful patterns using crayons. We reviewed all of the geometric shapes, free form shapes, and different kinds of lines and discussed how we could combine those elements of art and make them repeat to create patterns. Then we practiced painting, remembering how to use our brushes gently so we take care of the bristles. After the paintings were dry, we created a wonderful soft sculpture with the paper; look for these sculptures to be "swimming" home soon!