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Monday, May 14, 2012

3rd Grade Coil Pots with Plants!

I have great display space just outside my roomfor 3D work!
Whew! It has been a while since I last posted, but I have a good excuse. My art show was last Thursday so I have been a LITTLE busy. The good thing is that the art show went very well. There were probably 400-500 visitors to the show. I'm going to try to get caught up this week and hopefully post a few times. 


I don't truly know the reason, but I seem to change my third grade clay project nearly every year. 4th grade has always done castles, but third grade has had four entirely different clay projects in the five years I have been at Thomas. 


This year, I decided to have my students make coil pots. It was a construction technique that I don't teach to the other grade levels so it made sense. My biggest reason for wanting to have my students create coil pots is because I really wanted to have kids plant seeds and grow something in the pots. After the pots were glazed, I filled each pot with potting soil and gave each student a choice of seeds to plant. I think these turned out really nicely and my students are super excited about their little plants. 

6 comments:

Mr. E said...

Those are so beautiful!! (I love all the windows...my room is kind of dark with only two small windows)

Zach Stoller said...

Thanks, Mr. E! This display space is just outside of my art room in the commons. I wish I had that kind of storage in my room!

Hope Hunter Knight said...

I do coil pots in 3rd grade too - it's been a tradition for years and a specific part of our 3rd grade art curriculum. I really like the addition of the planted seeds! They look great in the awesome display space.

Unknown said...

I *love* all of the windows in your room. Me=envious! I don't have any in my room. The pots look great!

Unknown said...

Do you poke holes in the bottom since they are going to be for plants? Also, do you teach the kid slip n score, but not have them blend the coils?

Zach Stoller said...

Erica,
I don't have the kids poke holes because I assume the plants will be fairly temporary for most kids once they are taken home.

As for attaching the coils, I just have them score, wet, and attach. For small pieces like this (or any ceramic project I teach in elementary), there is no need to use slip. The work is plenty strong without it and it saves a step!