Giving (Christmas Lesson) Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth visit

Giving

Standard

Standard 1

Objective 2B: Use new art materials and newly learned techniques and processes to celebrate important days and historical events.

Goals

Students will have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas and learn about the feeling that comes from giving through the making and gifting of a Christmas tree ornament. 

Vocabulary                                                          

Ceramics

Hand-building

Slab

Coil

Slip

Score

Artists

Brett Freund

Eszter Imre

Guliz Korkmaz Tirkes

Bela Silva

Kate Macdowell

Eugene Hon

Edward Morgan 

Leading Questions

What is your favorite Christmas tradition? What is Christmas about? Why do we give? How does it make us feel? What if we give to someone we don’t like very much, how do we feel? How do we pick our gifts we give?

Lesson

                First off I want to talk about Christmas (see leading question ideas). I especially want to highlight giving.  How it makes us feel to give to those we love and even how it feels to give to those we don’t like very much, because giving is exactly what we are going to do. But first we have to make what we are going to give and that is a Christmas ornament. These ornaments will be 3-dimensional and should be unique to the person making it. In other words I want them to think outside the box and not make round or flat ornaments, or ornaments that entirely have to do with Christmas. Two examples about what they could be about instead are about a favorite memory the student had with the person they are giving the ornament to, or something they love about that person. They should also remember to create a space for the ribbon to weave through so the ornaments can be hung on a tree.

                I will show them some examples of what is possible with clay and the art of ceramics (see list of artists) to get some ideas going of what they can do for their ornaments. Then give them a demo on clay techniques, namely how to; make a coil and a slab, smooth the clay, connect pieces together with slip, and draw and imprint designs into the clay. I will also stress that it is very important for the clay not to dry out if they do not finish the piece today. If it dries it is stuck the way it was left. It is also important for them to know that if their piece is more than an inch thick they need to hollow it out, otherwise it will not fire correctly.

                Then I will let them go to create. I don’t want the instruction to take very long because I want them to have a lot of time to experiment and create.

                When they have finished and their pieces are dry and have been fired, students will be able to glaze their ornament!

Assessment

                After they make and give their ornament I want them to tell Mr. Jenkins, either verbally or in written form, how it made them feel to give and how they think the other person felt receiving the ornament. 

Sorry about the lack of pictures for these visits, I had clay on my hands the majority of the time and was unable to take any.