Clay Story Box

Project Video

https://www.artsonia.com/teachers/members/

Meet The Teacher: Cheryl Newsted

My name is Cheryl Newsted. I teach ceramics at a  small Fine Arts magnet school in Morrow Georgia. This is my third year teaching  students in  this 1st through 12th grade program. Being such a small school we have less resources available to my resourceful and gifted students.

Project Description

In this adventure students will use a variety of hand building skills  to bring their story to life using both high and low relief features.

Materials

  • white low fire clay, paper to create a template, clay tools, glazes
Download Material List

Grade Level

Middle School

Difficulty

Intermediate

Student Hands-On Time

3 hours

Teacher Prep Time

1 hour

National Core Arts Standards - Visual Arts

  • Creating - Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas.
  • Creating - Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work.
  • Connecting - Connect personal experiences with artmaking and meaning.

21st Century Skills

  • Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving
  • Communication

STEAM Education

  • Engineering
  • Arts

Differentiations and Accommodations

Differentiation

Advanced Learners

Accommodation

The open-ended nature of this lesson allows for a variety of levels of execution and skill levels.

Learning Objectives: Knowledge

Students will use slab method to build a box with a lid . They will understand how to take a lump of clay and transform it into a sculptural representation of a story told through four panels plus a lid using high a low relief.

Learning Objectives: Skills

Engages in the creative process, imagines new ideas by using mental and visual imagery,and conceptualizes these ideas by using artistic language and contextual understandings and processes.Finds and solves problems through open-ended inquiry, the consideration of multipleoptions, weighing consequences, and assessing results.Incorporates elements and principles of design to solve specific three-dimensionalart problems, to create unified compositions, and to communicate meaning, culminating in afinished work of art.Engages in an array of sculpture processes, techniques, and aesthetic stances. Creates sculpture from various traditional and contemporary media

Learning Objectives: Attitudes/Values

Selects sculpture media, techniques and surfaces to evoke specific effect, mood, orconceptCreates sculpture to serve a specific function, such as expressive, utilitarian, andsocial.Manipulates a variety of observation tools to adjust or distort proportion, scale,volume, weight, and physics (e.g., vertical or horizontal elongation orforeshortening; change in size-relationship; rearrangement of parts to the whole) inthe development of an abstract approach to sculpture.

Formative Assessment

As students work they will be asked questions about their story and how their relief express that idea. These questions will be posed by both the teacher and classmates.

Summative Assessment

Did students create clean sharp corners to their box? Was the inside seam in the box well blended? Does the lid fit the box? Does the lip on the lid hold it in place so it doesn't slide? Is the handle on the lid and integral part of the story? Do the outside walls of the box have a combination of high and low relief features? Does the features on the outside of the ox tell a recognizable story?

Reflection and Discussion

What story do you want to tell?How does this feature add to your story?What other texture could you incorporate in your piece?What mood will that color create?How could or did you make your colors feel like they belong together?If you were to do this project again, what would you do differently?

Lesson Activities

Clay Story Boxes

This is an intermediate hand building clay project using minimal tools and slab construction.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1

Demonstrate how to make a paper template for their box Have students use paper and tape to make a prototype of their box Have students roll out a clay slab about 1/4” thick Students will use a needle tool and their template to cut out the walls and base for their box . This looked like a + sign and was 3” on each section. Demonstrate how to use an angle cutter to create a beveled 45 degree edge where the walls will meet. Have students re-enforce the inside seams with a small coil of clay. Show students how to trace the outside edge of their clay box on a slab of clay to create a lid Remind students to create a lip on the inside of their lid using a thin coil of clay , day two Now the fun begins! Each of the four sides of the box should be used to tell a portion of the same story. The handle to the lid should be an integral part of the story and should be sturdy enough that it could be used as a handle day 3 Students were asked to use 5 or more colors of glaze on their box