Chess Set by 1st Grade

For the annual benefit, each 1st grade class is creating a chess set out of clay. I usually do not help with the benefit class projects, but I have been intrigued by this idea. The benefit has a western theme this year, so the classes read books, brainstormed, and came up with chess pieces in their homerooms. They came to my room and created the pieces in clay. There are 16 students in each class, so they each made a pawn and one larger piece. Here are some examples, as greenware.

The armadillo in the front looks like he was already run over by a truck! The armadillo are pawns for one set, hearts (the heart of Texas), and horses are pawns for the other two sets. Some pieces are cowboy hats, boots, bluebonnets, horseshoes and horse heads. They are pretty darn cute!