8th Grade Ceramic Projects

sushi

robot, pancakes (toast?) and a plate of cookies

Love this! Wish the glazing was better (light in some spots)

by far, the talk of all my classes

Usually for 8th grade, I show my students different examples of previous handbuilt projects and they propose their own ceramic piece to make. There is a "clay proposal" form they must fill out. For kids who haven't had art before and as a review for those that have, I demo different techniques to construct their pieces. For the most part they turn out really well. For the students that need a little bit more direction, I give them a specific assignment. Food is usually popular! This trimester they turned out pretty good! There were some that I wish had glazed better, but all in all I was pleased.

Oreo Carving

 It's always a good day when you get to use food in a lesson! I found the idea on Pinterest, from another art teacher who based on this amazing artist! Since we were starting clay, I thought this would be good practice for carving into clay and sgraffito. I used generic oreos and they seemed to work out fine. The students had a great time and came up with some fun designs.

Tints and Shades Painting

Another art teacher in my district gave me the idea for this painting unit and I've never seen my class work so hard and be so quiet!

We start off talking about tints and shades and creating a color wheel. I give the option to students to design a creative color wheel showing tints and shades or they can use the circles worksheet.

Then I have them sketch out ideas in their sketchbook and how they could do one big design and divide into eight sections or divide into sections and do a different design in each. We also talk about unity and balance. In each section they paint the tints and shades of the color. When dry, they can outline in Sharpie if they'd like. They always turn out really cool looking.

8th Grade Sketchbooks

I like to have all my students create sketchbooks. Over the years, I have finalized a solution that doesn't cost my entire budget. Last year, all three grades had those pocket portfolio folders, with the three-prong inserts. I create a set of intro papers, including a Welcome to Art with reminders on clean up and procedures, a drawing ideas list and warm up boxes.

Since I only have one 8th grade section this year, I could afford to buy them real sketchbooks vs. the kind we created first trimester. We spent the first week or so working on a collage for the front cover. It had to have a theme and unity. They turned out really well! We covered them with mod podge a few times, and it gave a glare on the camera