The Turkey in the Kiln story...

Several years ago, I worked at a school where my personal kiln was used as the school kiln.  Because I taught elementary, the powers that be decided to put it in the middle school art room - to be safer.  Well, the midle school teacher heard about cooking a turkey in a kiln.  Now, this was a very old kiln, and only had a cone kiln-sitter.  No ramping, or holding, just turn on low, medium or high, and away it would go until 1800 degrees when the cone would melt enough to cut the kiln off.  So, this teacher puts a turkey in the kiln in the evening, turns on the kiln, and goes home.  At 5 am or so, the fire alarm went off.  Well, the turkey was a charred, smelly smoldering mess.  The entire school, especially that end, reeked.  A teacher in the midst of morning sickness moved to a classroom far far away.  For weeks, even pulling a tissue from a box caused a revisit of the smell. 
Needless to say, my kiln was ruined.  She had the kiln guy come, and it never worked like it did before.  I can not understand putting food in a place where chemical reactions take place!
The event gave many families a good Thanksgiving day story, and is always mentioned at senior banquets and reunions!  

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Whooo, Whooo....

The Kindergarten and Primer students are finishing up their last projects before they select one for the exhibit in December.  These owls will all be in the exhibit, they are fabulous!! They used a slab of clay, folded over an end, piniched a beak and used a variety of items to add texture.  After the owls were fired in the kiln (not kennel like a PreK said the other day!), they girls colored the owls with oil pastel and then painted them with black tempera, which we rinsed off.  They are amazing!  The idea for the oil pastel and tempera came from www.tartteaching.blogspot.com. 

 

I like the fact that the girls were not afraid to try different colors.  When the black paint was rinsing off, the girls were so excited to see the owl kind of appear!  Makes teaching art a joy......

Clay Animals in Kindergarten

For several years, I have used the X method to help students create clay animals.  They would roll a thick coil, pinch out the neck, and I would create an X on the body from which the 4 feet would be pinched.  The animals could stand up on the 4 legs or sit on its bottom.  Here is one example:

 

 

The animals end up pretty heavy.

 

 

 

As I was browsing through some old Texas Art Ed Conference papers the other day. I found a lesson on making clay animals using long slabs and paper towel or toilet paper rolls. So, thought I would try this method with one class.....

 

 

 

 

These animals seem to have more energy than the "old" way, and the students had more time to add details.  They also learned "scratch and wet" to attach heads, necks, etc.  I think I like this way more... any opinions?



Turkeys with Dressing

Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday!  You get to do my favorite hobby (eating) and no religious or gift worries.... just family and fun!  The first graders and I discussed Thanksgiving and what our favorite foods are.  A lot of the word favorite here!  I told them about dressing as another name for stuffing.  Some people consider dressing as stuffing not cooked in the turkey.  Depends what part of the country you are in, I guess.  Anyway, can art be funny?  I think so.  So we made "Turkeys with Dressing", and they are quite the fancy birds....We used fabric, wallpaper samples, sparklies, ribbons, old jewelry, just about anything to really deck out our turkeys...

I kept a picture of a turkey on the smart board.. and we talked about drawing circles and connecting them with a neck to make the body of the bird.  They cut those out and added beaks, feet and a gobbler.  Then the girls cut out all kinds of stuff to dress the turkey.  When they finished, they had to write a story about the turkey and include the name of the bird.  The turkey's name is displayed with the turkey.  Too cute!

 

I am thinking the wider ribbon is the hair?  They tend to be heavy with all the stuff the girls add.