We are spending the month of January working with clay. Sometimes this medium really lends itself to integrating into the lessons as with the plant parts for the kindergarten. Each student got a 3x5" note card as a base and a ball of salt clay. We discussed plant parts and drew a plant on the board then they were off. Each was to include all the parts on their plant remembering to include roots and seeds. They are pretty good at the proportions on these. When the plants were completed we used washable markers to color them with pretty great results.
The 1st grade created a 3D map with most of the correct elements. We had a discussion of which would be on a map and which would not. The volcanoes, train tracks, roads and rivers would. Trees might although not in as great of detail as some of the trees acquired. People and animals would not appear. They completed the project by giving it some color using water color boxes. It was a bit messy but turned out well. This is a different clay than we used in the past made with cornstarch as I was given a 50# bag of it.
The 2nd grade is studying landmarks so we created replicas of several of them using the soda/cornstarch clay, chenille stems and toothpicks. We determined that Mt. Rushmore was going to be too hard to create but Natural bridge, Washington's monument and a few others fit the bill. The monuments never had such color before though!
Lastly the 3rd grade got to add a bit of color to their vertebrates from last week using watercolors. They were really great creations and the color was just what they needed.
This has proven to be a popular project this year. The kindergarten made them a month ago and the 1st grade did them today. We had more time to talk about the Statue of Liberty, her history, and information about her.
The project is simple with tp tubes, egg carton sections, straws, tissue paper and green paper crown. This group was much more concerned about being sure she had a face--even hair in some cases.
This week the group was studying monuments and what better monument to create than the Statue of Liberty?
This was a bit time consuming and involved for the kindergarteners so I cut and assembled the base before class of a tp roll and a cardboard egg cup. The kids threaded the straw through to make the arm with a bend, added the crown, and covered the whole thing with green tissue paper. They made the torch by themselves and seemed to have a good time adding the flames. They were not really sure about using their fingers to spread the glue but managed well when supplied with wet paper towels to wipe their fingertips.
They really turned out well and will be made by the 1st grade in about a month.
