First Clay Project with 1st Grade

I know it has been a while and I want to apologize!  I have been expressly busy after I returned from TAEA and it has truly been a marathon of clay projects with 1st and 2nd graders and Christmas Musical Program practices with 4th Graders!  But.....the end is near...Just 1 1/2 more days until the blessed Christmas Break commences!  YIPPPPPYYYYY

But, in the meantime, I would like to give you a little update!

First, as soon as I returned from TAEA I prepped my clay to begin Clay Birds with 1st Graders!  Thanks Cassie Stephens for a fantastic lesson!  This lesson took me 3 (45 min) class periods.

Cassie Stephens Clay Birds

Preping my clay:

I made myself a slab cutter from some scrap 2"x4" I had in the garage from a recent project (bunk beds for my son).  I used the eye hooks as a tightener and 20 gage wire.  I think in the future, I will use a more flexable wire.  This is very stiff and heard to wind and work with.

I strung a center wire to cut my slabs in half.  I cut up a cheep dollar store plastic table cloth into rectangles to place between the clay slabs and put 20 into a bag.  I did 8 bags for 12 bags to accommodate myself and about 200 students with a little extra just in case.

Day 1:  We constructed our birds.  This was a learning experience for both myself and the 1st graders.  Next time I will do a trial run with play dough before we dive into real clay.
Day 2: We used the tempera cakes to paint our birds.  This worked fine until it came time to "glaze".
Day 3:  We used Mod Podge to "glaze" our birds.  Again, this was a learning experience.  Next time I will dip the birds into a Mod Podge bath and hang dry.  Painting smeared the tempera paint and caused some birds to change colors as the tempera mixed with the Mod Podge.  OR... I may just use acrylic paint....uggghhhh....maybe not..We are talking about 1st graders!