School at St. George Place Elementary: Ceramic Planets by 4th and 5th Grades

These ceramic planets were a great sculpture project full of scientific connections.

Materials:

Oil pastels

Sulphite paper

Posters of various planets

Clay (We used Amaco White Art Clay)

Sculpting tools

Glazes (We used Mayco Stroke and Coat Mixable Glazes)

Procedure:

1. Students drew several planets from observation using deep space photographs of planets.

2. They chose their favorite and paid careful attention to the texture, colors, and if the planet had clouds or storms.

3. Students created two simple pinch pots and attached them with scoring and smoothing.

4. They refined the form by rolling it gently and passing it back and forth between their hands until it was (mostly) round.

5. Students created a vent hole on the bottom by poking their thumb into the clay. It was kind of neat because it made a little "puff" sound so they could really hear the air trapped inside the form.

6. Tools were used to create textures and incised designs.

7. After firing, we glazed with a minimum of three coats of each color. I encouraged them to layer different colors on top of one another for interesting color mixtures.