Ancient Egyptian Artifacts

I finally have some of these to share!  One of my 6th grade classes finally finished their Egyptian artifacts.  It always seems to take a little longer to finish clay projects because I refuse to fire my kiln unless it's full.  Class B will be glazing/painting theirs when we get back from the February break.

You can see the basis for this project here.  Again, here are what the requirements were for this project:

     1. Create an Egyptian artifact out of clay using at least one of the three hand-building techniques.

     2. Artifact must include hieroglyphics.

     3. Artifact must somehow reflect yourself in it.

     4. You must turn in a sketch that tells me what your artifact will be, how you will build it, if you plan on glazing or painting it (or both), and you must tell me how you will be reflected in the project.

I'm sure you can tell which students either didn't "get it" or just didn't try.  For some students, this was one of their best projects and for others, I was a little disappointed in their output.  

This sarcophagus was this student's best work so far!  And, on the plus side, he actually built a larger artifact compared to others.

This one is supposed to be a cartouche-shaped box, however the tail broke off.

This student does really well with coil creations, but I think he wasn't sure (more like I think he gave up) on trying to completely make this box look like an Egyptian artifact, aside from the hieroglyphics.  Great craftsmanship on this one though.

Egyptian eye...this one is VERY small...about the length of my pinky finger.  

One of the best slab works!  This one is very delicate but a nicely done scarab!

Another great sarcophagus.  Awesome craftsmanship on this one, and I think she made a wise choice painting it with acrylic paint instead of glazing it.

This is a sarcophagus shaped vessel.  Originally this student was making it so it laid flat, but then for some reason she sealed the entire thing.  When I reminded her that she couldn't seal it without poking holes (and that it seemed like a waste of clay to me to have a hollow object like this that couldn't be used) she cut out a top and added a handle.

Again, another student who didn't really try to make an Egyptian artifact.  He carved a single hieroglyphic on each side of this box, but then he never made a lid and he glazed it so that it was hard to see the hieroglyphics.

Because we had to move onto the next unit before finishing this project, I gave them review questions about the clay itself instead Ancient Egypt.  The hand-building skills, even though they've done them with me in the past years and we reviewed them extensively before beginning this project, seemed to be a hard thing for them to remember, step-by-step, how to do.  So far, they've done a pretty good job remembering and writing down the steps for each of these questions.  If I have enough clay to do another clay project with 6th grade before the end of the year, I'll give them a similar quiz before beginning the unit.

Despite having a rough start with this project, I'm still happy with the results.  I will share the rest of these artifacts once they are finished!

Primary Playgrounds: A Review in Shape and Primary Colors!

I saw this project on Pinterest (the link on Pinterest takes you to the K-8 Art blog...) so I used it and altered it to my students.  I did this for my Kindergarteners as an "in-between" filler projects between units.  Two of my three classes have done this project, and the other will be doing it this week while the other two classes catch up.

The teacher at K-8 Art described giving each table a tray of pre-cut shapes, however since I've been working on shapes since the beginning of the year, I simply gave each student a 4"x6" piece of  red, yellow and blue construction paper.  This was a great review of the primary colors, as well as shapes.  

Before beginning, I showed students the three colors and asked what they knew or remembered about them.  I'd say a good 2/3 of the class remembered they were called the primary colors, which is promising!  I then showed them the examples from the K-8 Art blog and then reviewed with students the shapes that were used to build the playgrounds.

We took one day to cut and glue (with glue sticks) the playground together, and then another day to color the background (which was another good review for craftsmanship, details and a horizon line!).  Since my pre- and post-assessment in Kindergarten for APPR deals with cutting and gluing shapes, this is an excellent review for the middle of the year!  (Disclaimer:  My rubric from the Kindergarten assessments has since changed from my original plan...too much to grade in those, and unusable since the requirement was put in place that someone else must grade your student's post-assessments.)  I actually think that I might inocorporate this next year for my pre- and post-assessment instead of the worksheet to make it more of an artistic assessment!

3rd Grade Castles & Science: Simple Machine Pulley Drawbridge

Here is the latest update on our 3rd grade castles!  My previous post on these told you how I had one class paint their castles...you can see from the photos below the different technique I had the other class use...sponges.  I think I like this technique better than the first!

For our last class, we spent time making our draw bridges work.  I supplied yarn, paper clips, hole punches, wooden dowels and toilet paper rolls, upon request.  I did not demonstrate how to make these work to students.  Instead, I told them they had to use their problem solving skills and what they learned in science class to make a pulley system for their drawbridge.  While some of these aren't exactly true pulleys, I'd say they did a pretty good job!  One class was particularly more creative than the other with their draw bridges and a lot of the boys actually made their bridges move with a crank!