The first graders had a blast rolling out clay slabs, tracing their butterfly, cutting the clay and stamping textures in the clay. Do you remember the game Perfection?
I know there is debate amongst art teachers whether or not to use template tracers. This is one of the few projects I do use them. I reviewed the goals of the project.. rolling slabs, cutting clay, incorporating textures, glazing. Those are the goals. Drawing a butterfly shape is not the main focus of the project and using a template allows the students the freedom to work on their clay project without stressing about forming the perfect butterfly shape. I do think it is great to allow the students to do as much as they can on their own. Maybe next year I will try this project without using a template and see how it goes.
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Maybe a way to get around everyone using the same butterfly pattern would be to teach the kids how to draw a butterfly by folding a piece of tagboard in half and then drawing half the butterfly? Then the kids to cut it out and have their own drawn butterfly to trace into the clay.
Great idea! Why didn’t I think of that?
I just did a clay art project with my first graders this last week! They made suns with engraved designs! Check it out here: http://www.briggs-artstudio.com/blog—crafting-baking-and-teaching/summer-clay-art
How did you glaze the clay? We didn’t glaze ours but I think I will next time. Happy Blogging 🙂