Beyond Pinch Pots: Art Lesson Plans with Clay
Students use creative problem solving as they construct with clay in art lesson plans.
By Alison Panik
There truly is no match for the feeling of pressing your fingers into a wet slab of clay. The “squishiness” kids notice when clay is wet, make it an unmatchable tactile experience. Plus this wonderful quality makes clay a very expressive medium that is also very forgiving.
Part of the joy of working with clay is the exploration phase. Give children ample time to feel the clay, exploring its qualities both with hands and tools. Add water to feel the slippery results. Explore carving, squeezing, rolling, and pressing clay pieces. Invite children to play freely with clay. Ask inviting questions about forms and shapes children create. Since clay is a very expressive, three-dimensional medium, you’ll find that most children will have much to say about what they are doing and creating. Clay also provides an opportunity to exercise hands and fingers, particularly valuable for young children and those with fine motor challenges. And as students begin to pursue the creating of an idea in their mind, they will also put into use their problem-solving skills as they manipulate the material to make it do what they want.
Clay is easy and affordable for all classrooms. Creations made with hardening clay can be air-dried or sun-dried. If you are lucky enough to have a classroom kiln, glazing can also be an added creative dimension to clay work. Another option is to ask a local pottery shop to fire students’ creations for you. Non-hardening clay is malleable and reusable and allows children the opportunity to create for imagination’s sake with no finished product to worry about. Three ways to use clay include modeling (forming shapes with small pieces of clay), sculpting (removing unwanted pieces from a large clay form using sculpting tools), and throwing (using a potter’s wheel to form a circular clay form).
The art lesson plans below include introductory, modeling and sculpting activities:
Art Lesson Plans Using Clay:
This clay art lesson plan is a very nice introduction to clay work for students in second through fourth grades. Students in older grades who have never used clay would also enjoy this project. I like the three-day process that includes demonstration of basic clay techniques and time for planning.
Exploring Architecture with Clay
Plasticine clay is used in this lesson to introduce students in kindergarten through sixth grades to the basic three-dimensional shapes seen in architecture. Children use these shapes to construct temporary architectural structures, imagining their designs as “models” of future buildings and shelters that they or others might build. Vital to this lesson is the “walk” that students are led on by the teacher around the classroom to observe all of the student-created architecture, identifying the three-dimensional shapes they see in each structure. I would recommend taking digital photos of each structure before “smushing” to use for a later project or for display. Extensions include creating permanent structures in a follow-up lesson using regular clay.
Coordinate with classroom teachers to connect clay projects with social studies. This lesson is a wonderful example of how a study of Native American petroglyphs can include exciting clay work. Invite a classroom teacher to work with you to prepare students with background about Native American rock art in your state. This unit offers great ideas for ways to integrate writing and make personal connections with the concept of symbol and picture stories. The two clay projects offered in this lesson include detailed instructions and tips that are both written and in photographs. Also includes a student assessment and teacher reflections.
This clay lesson for children in third through sixth grades invites children to construct slab boxes with impressed textures that reflect their personalities. I would spend at least one art class prior to this lesson exploring what makes each student unique and how textures, colors, and shapes could be used to represent our inner and outer selves. Students might also enjoy bringing in personal or found objects that interest or represent them (textured fabric, objects from nature, meaningful jewelry, or memorable toys from childhood. Provide modeling clay for students to experiment with the different textures that can be created with the objects before the “clay day”.
It’s Really Heating Up In Here!
Students in fourth through sixth grades use modeling clay to sculpt their own coastline environments then observe how the environments change when nearby “glaciers” begin melting. This lesson would work either as part of a classroom study of global warming or on its own as a stand-alone, one-hour lesson with the cooperation of the classroom teacher to provide time for students to observe the changes in their coastline environments after the art class. Plan time to tap into student knowledge of global warming, share the brief introductory information included in the lesson, or go right into the art activity with no introduction to allow the activity to introduce the topic, and allow students to come up with their own questions about global warming.
