MsKBrown 10/03/2011 at 10:50pm
I love ceramics and feel lucky to have a kiln and two potter's wheels in my room. My students love it!

msleaney 10/04/2011 at 05:43am
I have a kiln but no potter's wheels. I know the school had a few wheels but they got rid of them - not sure why. Kids love ceramics - I teach boys and they love the 'hands on' nature of the clay. It's hard with one kiln though - takes ages to get their work back to them! What kinds of things do teachers do with the kids in ceramics? We make fantasy creatures and clay heads in years 7 and 8. Modernist human forms in Year 9.

mrwinningham 10/17/2011 at 08:38pm
I cannot wait to get my kids working with clay! In my next unit, I plan to explore texture and form with my k-6 artists. We are going to learn basic hand building techniques and most likely make some kind of utilitarian object. We only have air dry clay which I have never used before.

Any tips for a first year art teacher?!?!?

Shamsa 03/24/2012 at 05:37pm
Pinch pots are a great basic lesson

Abbyesc 03/25/2012 at 02:11pm
Tiles are also a great basic lesson.

Astabeth 04/01/2012 at 05:51pm
I love ceramics - it was my major. I teach a unit on ceramics (handbuilding) to my 10th graders, and I also have a ceramics & crafts course where they learn to throw. My handbuilding lesson plan is at http://www.thesmartteacher.com/exchange/resource/36/Ceramics-of-World-Cultures but it is a high school lesson plan. It wouldn't be hard to modify it for middle school, though.

RuthByrne 05/15/2012 at 05:54pm
I love doing a flat piece with the first graders. Traditionally a coil pot with 2nd, (slab)cups or dragons with 3rd, and then castles or lighthouses (slab building) for fourth.
For the lower grades I have it down to one building day (fire) one glaze day (fire and return). With the older grades its fun to take two meetings to build, but storage is tricky. I put them in bins and cover them with plastic roll table cloth.

Here's the first grade project: http://www.thesmartteacher.com/exchange/resource/283

lhARTz 07/18/2012 at 07:34am
I'm getting a wheel this year (FREE)! I teach 3rd, 4th, and 5th. How do I teach the wheel to them (At least 5th graders) when I only have one?

RuthByrne 07/28/2012 at 04:57am
That is a hard one! One at a time can be so hard.
The way I wouldn't do it was how my high school teacher did it. He worked on the wheel and we watched, the end. Maybe you have a month devoted to the wheel and a simultaneous independent project, something you've done before and are confident the students can accomplish on their own. Have a group of five come over for basic instruction/introduction and then work with one at a time to pull a cylinder or something basic.