While one of my 6th grade classes began a Greek unit in art class and in Social Studies, the other class did a short unit on Ancient China. Now, this project was originally going to be a two-project unit, however due to my shortage of clay, this is going to be a one-project lesson instead, and now this class will move onto Greek Art as well, as they are currently learning about the Ancient Greeks in Social Studies.
I previously saw this lesson floating around on Pinterest, which linked back to My Adventures in Positive Space. I've also seen a few where teachers have their students draw and cut out vase shapes. I decided this would be a good way to review the radial symmetry the students learned about in our Mexican Folk Art unit.
The focus of this project was to be able to identify the characteristics of Chinese porcelain, describe and create an artwork with radial symmetry, and mix various tints and shades of blue. These are a few of the finished project, and just about everyone seemed to grasp the concept of radial symmetry by this point.
When we get back from February break, this group will begin the Greek unit with the scratch art Greek pottery. My other 6th grade group will continue their Greek unit by learning about Greek architecture and will then design and draw a Greek temple using value.
