Pottery

For this art lesson, we used clay to create pots. They introduced the students to pottery, with a slight background. After, we began working with the clay kneading it and lightly throwing it on the tables. Once the clay was worked and checked for no air bubbles we began making the pot. We were asked to set aside a small piece of clay for the bottom of our pot. So we smoothed a piece about the size of our thumb and not very thick. It got placed into a baggie until the coil process would begin.We then split our clay into two piece, so it was easier to work with and rolled it out into a long coil or tube. Once we felt it was about the thinkness we wanted, we placed knotches in the coil and also on the bottom piece that we had put away. These knotches helped interlock the two piece together, so the pot is stable. We continued this process until the coil was used up and repeated the process with the last piece of clay. After we finished, we were to engrave or paint a symbol onto our pots. I made a heart for love and family. I also made a cross to symbolize my faith. Once it was painted, the project was complete.
I think a great additional lesson to this project would be to talk more about life symbol and our differnt cultures. I think that the students could give a short speech about their pots and the meaning behind the symbols on their pots. They could also write a one page story about the important aspects of their lives and share them with the class, so they may get a better understanding of one another and their differing cultures.

Marbling

This week the seventh graders learned about marbling. We were given a sheet of paper with a famous landmark or building on it. We were asked to sketch this drawing to the best of our abilities and then outline it in a black sharpie marker. Once we outlined it and cut out our sketches, we were able to begin the marbling process. The process began by coating the bottom on a tin pan with shaving cream and then adding splashes of color with a paint brush on top of the shaving cream. The trick was that we could only using three adjacent colors on the color wheel for paint. I chose blue, green, and yellow and then used a comb to brush the color spots together into a cool design. Once we created the design we wanted, we were asked to firmly press the drawing into the shaving cream. After we scrapped off the excess shaving cream and were left with a neat marbling design. The project ended with framing it and placing the name below the project.

An extension to this project could be to create famous landmarks and buildings just in South Dakota using the marbling technique. I also would let the students draw and find their own landmark or building to get more creativity. It could be an excellent activity to tie in with social studies and geography.

Print Making

In this lesson, the seventh grade students were asked to use print making, while creating a South Dakota background. The rail road cars were made by creating a stamp and roling the ink onto that stamp. We then pressed the stamp on a sheet of construction paper that would be the background for the rail road cars. The teachers also made us use some source of South Dakota grain or product for inside the rail road cars. I chose coal for in my cars and created a scene with corn, hills, and a barn to symbolize the South Dakota farming.

An extension to this activity could be to have students research more about print making and why it became so popular. I also believe it would be a great project to tie into a South Dakota unit and they could also write a page paper about their picture and background they created. The students could explain why they chose that background and its importance to South Dakota.

Blind Contour Drawing

This project was a blind flower drawing. We were required to draw three flowers on a piece of drawing paper without looking, using a white crayon so the flowers would appear. We then had to wet the paper down using water and a paint brush. After, we used warm and cool water colors to paint over the white crayon. Once we painted over the paper with colors, the flowers appeared.

An extension activity could be to use this as a flower unit. You could bring in flowers into the class and add in science by studying the flowers. They could also learn how to take care of flowers through this.

Bunny Plaid

In this project we learned about complimentary colors which include green and red, orange and blue, and purple and yellow. With these colors we were taught about plaid and how you create it by putting horizontal and vertical lines together using different colors. We used complementary colors to create plaid using paint and paper. After the plaid was created we used cut outs to glue the bunny together.

An extension to this activity could be using language arts and writing. I would have the students create a story about the bunny they created.

Macrame Key Chain

The project introduced the class to Macrame. Their are many different types of Macrame, in this project we made key chains. We were each told to useat least three beads on the key chain and have it at least three inches long.

An extension to this activity could be to relate this to social studies and language arts. I would allow the students to go into further depth about Macrame and the history behind it. A short one page paper would be a great ending to this art project.

Puzzle Piece

The project started by splitting the class into sections, warm and cool colors. The warm colors could choose to draw a duck or fox and the cool colors could choose to draw a fish or frog. Once we drew our animal, we had to give it texture of some sort. For the background, we either had to do lines, shapes, or patterns.



An extension to this activity could be to allow the students to choose any animal they chose and to possibly recreate another puzzle piece doing the opposite of the cool or warm colors and another art element (pattern, shapes, lines).