Ceramics/Lesson plans

Lesson plan for ceramics-slab construction

Unit: ceramics-slab construction Lesson: personalized clay bank-tennis ball-shaped banks Grade level: middle school

Lesson objective:

  • Student search internet images for inspiring themes for their claywork
  • Students learn how to personalize their claywork
  • Student will learn sculpting techniques
  • Student will learn how to assemble and glaze a recognizable figure from a slab of clay
  • Student will learn how to roll out clay to then be formed around a tennis ball to create a clay sphere for the base shape of the clay bank
  • Student will learn how their creativity can be used to create a functional sculptural object

Materials

  • Clay
  • Clay tools
  • Practice paper
  • Rolling pins
  • Guide sticks
  • Tennis balls
  • Glazes/under glazes

Motivation

  1. Show student examples of contempary ceramic slab construction
  2. Review forming techniques. Demonstrate slab construction and use of the tennis ball
  3. Show students how to draw up their design plans for clay bank construction

Construction

  1. Make thumbnail sketches of the ideas for bank. Select one to use for construction. Make template for base actual size.
  2. Decide the size the bank is going to be.
  3. Assemble slab. Wrap clay around a dry tennis ball and roll it on a smooth surface until it is as smooth.
  4. Cut tennis ball out of rolled slab and remove. Stuff two halves of clay with crinkled news print and seal halves together and blend until smooth.
  5. Using the designed pattern sheet, form the various parts of the themed bank. Using scoring techniques and slip to join appendages. Add clay features to resemble the sketched model.
  6. Use an xacto knife to cut out a coin slot for the bank to have functionality.
  7. When bank is completed, set out to dry for atleast a week.
  8. Biske fire
  9. Glaze with desired colors, remebering to use three coats of glaze to insure uniform coverage

Vocabulary needed:

  • Modeling: to plan or form after a pattern
  • Slab Construction: A build term referring to construction placed on a slab as its foundation.
  • Slip: potter's clay that is thinned and used for coating or decorating ceramics
  • Score: a slight surface cut used to join clay