After finishing the figurine project, I opened up clay as a medium students could use when they were working on Independent Projects. Some students decided to make functional clay projects, either on the wheel or using hand-building techniques.

For hand-building, I showed students how to roll out coils, score and slip them, and then blend them together to create bowls or cups.

A lot of students got more adventurous with their glazing. They created patterns in the clay and then glazed their piece using different colors.

Some students tried throwing a couple times and then moved on to other ideas. A handful of students really stuck with it and practiced throwing any chance they got! It was exciting to see how much they improved over time.

It was so much fun to display their work in the cases in our main hallway and cafeteria. I realized pretty quickly that I needed to change out the displays more frequently than I planned. So many students were anxious to take their clay projects home and quite a few of them wanted to give it to someone as a gift.

Supplies: Clay, Glaze, Clay tools, Wheel, Bats