Animal Pinch Pot

For this lesson, we learned how to create pinch pots out of clay.  We had to get rid of all the air bubbles in the clay and then shape the clay in a sphere.  Then we pressed our thumb into the middle of the ball of clay and pull out while we shape the outside of the clay with our fingers.  We learned about additive and subtractive, which are adding pieces of clay and/or carving out of the clay, and we had to use one of each techniques while creating an animal from our pinch pots.

An extension activity could be to create piggy banks out of clay.  The students would also have to create a type of pinch pot by opening creating an opening in the center of the clay, but then they would have to close off the top by adding a slab of clay and creating a slit at the top to put in change.  They can do the same concept as we did in this project by turning their piece of clay into an animal, so the students still learn about additive and subtractive techniques.

Example:
 

Crayon Resist with Monet

In this project we recreated Claude Monet's Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies.  We started by drawing the bridge, clouds, water lilies and flowers with crayon, and after that we used watercolor paint to paint in the background.  We used mainly warm colors to draw with crayons and we painted with cool colors.  We had to use a lot of water to the paint in order to get a gradient and faded effect.

Monet created a lot of paintings of water, with flowers and trees and buildings or rocks reflecting in the water.  To get students to practice reflection, students could create a body of water and choose to draw something that is reflecting in the water.

Van Gogh Sunflower

For this project we focused on drawing.  We had to draw our own shaped vase, the flower petals, and the flower stems and leaves.  We used crayons to color everything and then used bright yellow paint to paint the flower petals.  For an added effect, we glued sunflower seeds around the center of each flower.  This work of art was inspired by Van Gogh's paintings of flowers.

An extension activity you could do for drawing could be to take a close up picture of students' faces, print them out, and then cut them in half vertically.  The students would then get to draw the missing half of their face.  This would be a great activity to get students drawing and interpreting how they perceive their own facial features.