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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Coil Pots by 3rd Grade

Blistering hot, but beautiful!

Coil pot madness! We have about 100 freshly made coil pots on display here at Thomas. This is our third grade clay project this year. It builds on the skill of attaching pieces of clay together that was introduced last year.

The cool thing about this project is that we don't just make and glaze a few coil pots, but we actually use them as small planters. Students could choose from tomato, marigold, or sunflower seeds to plant in their pots after they were finished. Students last year ended up with some viable flowers and vegetables, so I hope the students this year are equally successful with their plants. 

No lesson plan this time because it is pretty straightforward. I gave each class three art periods to finish building their pots and one day to glaze. 


2 comments:

Alexa said...

Hi there! I have almost 150 third graders in a week and was wondering what is your best method for keeping them wet inbetween classes?

Zach Stoller said...

Here is my tried and true method. I have a bunch of old cafeteria trays. I put as many clay projects as I can on a tray, put a layer of damp paper towels over the whole tray, then put the tray in a large garbage bag. The bag doesn't need to be tied. I just give the end a twist and fold it under the tray. The trick is to put the teacher's name on two pieces of tape per tray. One goes on the tray itself (for when the clay is ready to dry) and the other goes on the outside of the bag. I've kept projects wet for 4-5 weeks easily with this method. I'll do a whole post in the near future with pictures, etc. I know a lot of people who shy away from more involved clay projects because they aren't sure how to keep the clay moist. Good luck!