What Kind of Clay to Use for Clay Art

Ya'll. I got this genius thought almost a month and a half ago that all 400+ of my students should be working with clay. At the same time. And while this made for like shooting fish in a barrel set up/make clean up (read: We're five minutes tardily, ya'll -- Cease, Drop and Get Out! The next class is using the same thing!), all that clay left my room covered in a lovely layer of dust. Which, if y'all are an art instructor and then you lot know, means ii things:

1. The kids will figure skate across your dust-covered floor much to your pretend dismay (because, let's face it, yous exercise the same thing when they're not in the room).

2. The kids will leave a path of grit covered pes prints leading a slightly disgruntled custodian to your door (ha, I totally kid equally I have the most agreement custodial buddies effectually).

Despite the grit-bowl-esque advent of the art room, I love education clay as much as the kids do working with it. Seeing what creations they come up up with is always so much fun. Howevers, with the wee ones in kindergarten-town, I like to start with the nuts of paw edifice structure (slab, coil, sphere) in a pretty structured way.

Which leads me to this hither Clay Butterfly project. If you're new to teaching clay or you lot simply need a quick project that teaches the basics of clay construction in a fool-proof-ish kind of way then this big bad butterfly is the thing for yous. Here'southward what you'll need:

• Low Burn Clay (I employ cone 06)
• No kiln to fire the clay? No worries. Effort this out with air dry clay or Sculptey, available at arts and crafts stores.
• Skewer
• Toothbrush and cup of water
• Texture for the butterfly. We use a lot of lace, doilies and placemats in my art room.
• A butterfly template, optional
• Crayons
• Watercolor paint

When I introduce clay, I accept the kids gather effectually a tabular array and do a demo from start to cease. Then I run through the entire matter once again, this time having them repeat the directions later on me. I idea I'd share with ya'll the commencement-to-stop routine...simply don't worry, I won't make you lot repeat it dorsum.

On auto-repeat, I tell the kids: You can brand ANYTHING outta dirt as long as yous tin can make a Slab, a Roll and Sphere. With those iii things, annihilation is possible. First, I have 'em make a slab.

1. Begin by squishing the dirt every bit difficult as you can betwixt your 2 hands. Then thump it down onto your textured surface (this thumping-down business is e'er a hit, no matter what the historic period) and begin pounding the daylights outta that clay. Now, you lot're gonna take to remind the kids that the goal is not to punch they clay also much, it's non your blood brother later on all. The end result should exist a clay that is a consistent cookie thickness.

Sometimes y'all tin can pound and pound that clay and it only won't become broad enough. So I tell the kids to pound their clay at a diagonal to help the clay stretch and get the desired width.

The end effect should take the texture of your pounding and be consistently cookie thick.

ii. Peal that clay off of your texture like a Fruit Roll-Upward. I accept to tell the kids that otherwise they'll simply dig at it with their fingernails. If you testify them how to pull the clay and the texture abroad from each other, it's much easier. Also, isn't that texture rad? Clay is and then receptive to texture that I'm always showing kids ways to incorporate that into their clay piece. Lace is my personal fave.

iii. Once the clay has been pealed off of the texture, have the kids trace a butterfly template (not shown, duh). Or, if you are a Template Hater, don't. I use templates for this activeness as the focus is on working with clay. If I tin remove the frustration of cartoon and redrawing a butterfly onto dirt, them Ima gonna do it. When the kids cut into the clay, show them how to properly use that skewer stick. It should stand up vertically, like a solider. If the kids hold it like a pencil, they either just saw through the clay (leaving behind a chewed upwards looking edge) or don't cut all the way through.

3. Smooth out those dirt boogers. I know those rough edges aren't precipitous now...but merely you wait until yous run your paw over that bad boy after a good bisque firing (that's a offset burn down for you first timers). I've sliced my hand upwards on such a surface. I ever emphasize running a finger over the edges to smooth 'em.

4. In one case they've gotten that slab butterfly body fabricated, I teach 'em how to make a curl. For them, that's onetime chapeau. That's like the very first thing all kids brand outta clay: a snake! Using my extra clay, I roll out a scroll that is equally long as the heart of the butterfly. If I make it too long, I cut information technology to size with my skewer.

five. Now, I don't utilise a scoring tool, I apply a toothbrush. I do use the terminology "slip and score" and explain to them that it's the glue that binds it all together. Without information technology, your dirt project is sure to fall apart and you'll be then super deplorable. Don't permit it happen to y'all.

six. Stick that curlicue to the slab. In my demos, nosotros chatted for a hot minute about the three parts of the butterflies trunk and used our pinching fingers to create them.

7. Using spheres, we created eyes for our butterfly. Again, we toothbrushes considering we didn't want our eyes to fall off. Information technology totes sucks when that happens. Eyelashes (because all butterflies take 'em, correct?) and mouthes were added along with anything else the kinderkiddos might imagine.

viii.  When they brought their finished pieces to me, I wrote their names on the back and stuck two holes in the head for antennae and a hole in each fly for hanging. You lot might not desire to do this in front end of the children, specially if you fail to tell 'em what you're doing every bit stabbing their dirt project proves to exist a traumatic feel for some...not that I've e'er washed it or anything. Ahem.

Now, bisque or commencement firing these guys was cake considering I could just stack 'em up on my kiln shelves. Just I knew that coat firing would involve many rounds of loading and unloading the kiln because of the flat and wide nature of the pieces (in example I'm not speaking your language: yous cannot stack glazed pieces in the kiln equally they'll stick together once fired). If y'all think from before in this here post I mentioned that Everyone in the UNIVERSE was making something out of clay so glaze firing all of these really would have slowed my firing to a snail'southward footstep. Therefore, I knew I had to discover a glazing alternative.

I gave the kids watercolor paint and we had a chat near crayon resist. It helped that nosotros'd dabbled in this in a previous lesson and so the kids kinda got the concept. I told 'em that bright colors worked the best and that coloring super hard was the cardinal to making this piece of work. I likened information technology to putting a raincoat on the butterfly then that when information technology got moisture with the paint, the paint would curl correct off the rain coat. We likewise chatted nigh the symmetrical nature of a butterfly's pattern which inspired some kids. For others, they either weren't interested in that or their texture pattern made information technology too difficult to create a symmetrical blueprint.

In one case the crayon coloring business was through, the kids were gratuitous to paint. I asked them to pick one color (my friend above chose not to but the cease consequence is lovely) and really like really had to stress painting away the white spots. The key is to take a moppy wet brush and to paint slow plenty for the paint to sink into the crevices. In one case complete, I slapped some ModPodge on 'em and my fourth grade morning helpers added the hanger. I added a dot of hot glue inside each opening at the top, inserted the antennae and, viola! Kindergarten Clay Butterfly!

What are some of your fave kindergarten clay projects? I'd love to hear, ya'll!

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Source: https://cassiestephens.blogspot.com/2014/05/in-art-room-kindergarten-clay.html

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