What to Make a Clay Game Art Project What to Make a Clay Game Art Project Chese

The children work together to make a clay chess set for a charity auction. Ages 6 to 13. Programme 2 to three Sessions.

KEY IDEAS

• Working with clay
• Analogous a grouping project
• Building iii-dimensionally
• Using underglazes

Language
iii-dimensional, theme, scratch and slip, underglaze, bisqueware

RESOURCES
Click here to view more information about working with clay in a printer-friendly format.

You lot WILL Demand

• 12- past 18-inch Masonite boards (1 for each child) or canvas to cover the work surface
• Clay, 1 orange-sized ball for each kid plus a few extra
• Dirt for making the chess lath (See note beneath)
• Clay for making stands under the figures
• Clay needle tools
• Containers with a small amount of sideslip or water
• Opaque underglaze (not-toxic)
• Articulate glaze (non-toxic)
• Brushes for applying underglaze
• Trays for storing clay projects
• Plastic for gradually drying the dirt projects
• Two wooden boards to sandwich the clay chess board while drying (optional)
• Example or moving-picture show of a chess set

Note: Brand the chess board before class so the children tin coordinate the sizes of the figures. Be sure that the board will fit on your kiln shelf without touching the heating elements on the sides of the kiln. The 16-inch square lath pictured in this lesson was cut from a one-half-inch-thick slab that was rolled on a wooden board to avoid moving or angle the slab, which might cause warping when fired in the kiln. It was then stale slowly, sandwiched between two wooden boards with weights on the corners, and flipped occasionally. An alternative approach is to brand the chess board out of wood.

Background
When asked to contribute artwork for an sale to raise money for a local children's charity, the idea of children helping children was appealing. Given the young historic period of our students, we decided to practise something in which each kid would contribute a small piece to create a larger whole. A chess prepare with familiar characters, such as those on a subcontract, seemed like a feasible and fun idea. With a "let's give it a try" approach, the first graders made the chickens, and the second graders followed with the ducks. Excitement grew as the third graders created the pigs, and the quaternary through 6th graders worked on the cows, barns, and farmers. The finished artwork is a chess ready comprised of pieces as unique and full of grapheme equally the children who created them. Taken as a whole, it reminds us of both the beauty of our individuality and what we are able to accomplish together as a community .

THE PROJECT
First Session
Training

• Check the dirt several days before the lesson to be sure it has a good workable consistency.
• Wedge clay into orange-sized balls, planning one for each child plus a few extra.
• Make the chess board. (Run into note above.)
• Curlicue i large slab for the children to employ when cutting out stands for their chess pieces.
• Cover work area with individual Masonite boards or canvas.
• Set out needle tools, containers of slip or water, and the balls of clay.
• Accept available an example or picture of a chess set.

How to Brainstorm

• Explain to the children that they will be working together to create a clay chess set to be sold in an sale to raise money for clemency.
• Acquaint the children with a chess set and its pieces. Together, decide on a theme, or unifying idea, which volition be familiar to all of them, such as a farm, the circus, or zoo animals. Discuss the figures that will be needed to represent the theme and explicate that the individual figures must be carefully coordinated for each side. For example, the figures that represent the pawns for one side will need to be like to each other and contrast with the figures of the opposing side.

First graders made chicks for "pawns" on the green side.

2nd graders made ducks for "pawns" on the xanthous side.

• Explain that the figures need to exist 3-dimensional, or viewable from all sides, with no frail appendages and no parts protruding beyond the space of a square on the board. Encourage the children to simplify their figures, existence certain to include any immediately recognizable details, such as a duck'southward bill or a pig'due south snout. Attach additions to the figures using the scratch-and-slip method. (Scratch the areas to be joined, apply a small corporeality of sideslip or water, and gently press the pieces together.)
• To easily recognize the two sides while playing the game, scratch and sideslip the figures to stands which will later be painted with two different colors. The stands should fit within the squares of the chess lath and can exist cut from the big rolled slab. (Paper-thin tubes from paper towels were used to cutting the stands in this lesson.)
• Have the children work together to coordinate and make the figures.

Note: Comprehend the figures with plastic wrap, loosening it gradually to dry the dirt slowly. When completely dry, bisque-burn down the figures and the dirt chess board in a kiln.

Second Session
Preparation

• Set out bisque-fired figures and chess board.
• Set up out brushes and a diverseness of underglazes.
• Lightly marking the squares on the chess board with chalk.

How to Begin

• Explain that, in this session, the children will be applying color to their figures using underglaze, a paint for dirt. Before giving the children their figures, be sure they understand that bisqueware, clay that has been low-fired in a kiln, is frail and must be handled carefully.
• Demonstrate how chop-chop the underglaze will dry when applied to the bisqueware. The children demand to dip their brushes oft to avoid scrubbing and to cover all areas. They should carefully dab into any cracks or crude areas on the clay surface, brushing away whatsoever puddles that may occur. Show the children that they tin apply designs direct on top of dried opaque underglaze and that the last color painted is the one that volition show.
• Remind the children that, while playing chess, the figures for each side will need to be easily recognizable. To achieve this, determine on two colors to pigment the stands, using one for each side. It as well helps to coordinate the colors used on the figures, contrasting them with the colors used on the opposing side, such every bit the green lid and kerchief on the farmer and his wife, and the straw lid and harbinger-colored hair on the opposing farmer and his wife.

Sixth graders made farmers and wives for "kings" and "queens."

• Accept the children apply underglazes to their figures, reminding them to handle the bisqueware very carefully. As the children cease, have them paint the squares on the chess board using the same two colors used for the stands.

Note: Allow the figures and board dry overnight. Have an adult apply clear glaze to the pieces and t hen glaze-fire them in a kiln. (If time permits, depression-firing the underglazed pieces first will brand information technology easier to employ the articulate coat.)

NOTES

• When dirt is low-fired in the kiln, it shrinks most five to ten percent. Since all the pieces will compress about the same corporeality, this should not be a problem.
• Opaque rather than transparent underglazes are best to employ with young children. Mistakes are easily covered and designs can be painted directly on peak of the bottom color. Transparent underglazes offer a wider range of colors and tin can be used past children with more than experience working with underglazes. They will need to apply several coats and program ahead, since lighter colors volition non comprehend the darker colors.
• In the involvement of time, have an developed apply the articulate glaze, specially when working with young children.
• If making a wooden chess board, paint information technology with acrylic paints to create a hard, protective surface.
• The extra figures that the children make can be included with the chess set equally replacement pieces.

Permit'South TALK Most OUR WORK

• Are the clay figures sturdy and viewable from all sides?
• Is the clay carefully covered with underglazes, including the stands?
• Discuss the details used to make each side easily recognizable.

What the children might say...

• When I try to pigment nether my craven, the xanthous underglaze drips on the stand.
• He wants to put a John Deere hat on his farmer. I don't desire to pigment a green dress on the farmer's wife.
• The moo-cow's tail is skinny and I'm afraid it will break off.
• How can we make our pigs unlike from the other side's pigs?

What yous might say...

• To paint the underside of your chess slice, try holding information technology upside downwards so the underglaze won't drip on the stand up.Where drips do occur, they can be touched up with the right color of underglaze.
• If your figures are on the same squad, the colors should coordinate. Perhaps you could paint the dress the colour yous like and then add a greenish design.
• Delicate parts like a tail can exist attached along the animal's body to give it support.
• The stands for the animals will show us the side on which the pigs vest. You might also use different shades of pink for each side or brand spotted pigs for i side.

Click here to see this lesson in a printer-friendly format.

Fifth graders fabricated cows for "bishops."

Fourth graders made barns for "rooks."

Third graders made pigs for "knights."

rhodestabled1945.blogspot.com

Source: http://www.artforsmallhands.com/2011/11/clay-chess-set.html

Share this post