Sunday, April 14, 2019

Clay Around the Room

This school year I did my ceramics boot camp a little differently. I've started using some "around the room" activities- a brilliant idea that TAB teacher Cynthia Gaub came up with. You can read an article about her Around the Room activities HERE. Basically, there is some type of activity at each table to which students rotate to try something new or learn a new skill. I started making handouts for each around the room activity and storing them in page protectors in a binder so I can just pull them out next year.
For ceramics, my stations were coils, pinch pots, sculpting, and slabs.
At the coil table, students were shown images of coil construction then challenged to roll the longest coil they could and try to make a little bowl.
At the sculpting table they were once again shown images of some ceramic sculptures and were asked to manipulate the clay just using their hands and no other tools to make something. My students tend to think in parts and I wanted them to see they can pinch and pull the clay instead of just assembling.
At the slab table, students learned to use the slab roller then I asked them to make a 90 degree corner by mitering the edges, scoring, and slipping.

At the pinch pot table I asked the students to form two similar pinch pots and put them together to make a hollow form. 
The around the room practice pieces were recycled so we covered a lot of skills without waste.
To finish off the boot camp, the students made clay plaques for lack of a better term. They had to use additive and subtractive techniques as well as create texture. Some melted stained glass in a few areas. The theme and subject were up to the students. They tend to remember seeing this "project" in the hallway from previous years and enjoy making their own ideas.



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