PINCH POT CREATURES
Objective: Students will become acquainted with clay modeling techniques and
become conscious of how clay can be molded into shapes and make objects.
Book: Mouseshapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Classroom: Discuss what the students saw in the galleries and sum up the tours
highlighting shapes. Transition into the lesson for the day. Review with the students
the different ways to mold clay together (pinch, press and smooth). Review what a
pinch pot is.
Total Lesson: 40mins
Supplies: clay, clay tools, water containers
Main Project: 30 mins
Explain to the students that they are going to create a pinch pot. Begin by having
each student roll the clay into a ball. To begin shaping the pot have them place
their thumb in the center of the ball and press until they have produced a well into
the clay. The students then continue to press into the hole and pinch the edges as
they make a bowl shape. After they have created the pinch pot have the students
turn the pot sideways and use the opening as a mouth. The students can then add
details to their creature such as eyes, wings, horns, teeth, etc emphasizing the
shapes of each feature. Remind them that it needs to be connected together or
when it dries it will fall apart.
PRINTMAKING WITH FOAM
Objective: Campers will create an etching plate from foam to use for printing.
Campers will use this plate to print multiples of their image.
Supplies: print making foam (or foam plates), pencil, paper, printmaking ink,
acrylic sheets, brayers
Main Project: Campers will create an image on a piece of paper. They will recreate
this design on the foam plate by copying, or tracing the image. Campers will use
brayers to apply ink from the acrylic sheet onto the foam plate. Once the ink is
rolled evenly over the plate campers will place the plate, ink-side down, onto their
paper. (The pressed in image should still be visible after the ink is applied.) They
will use a clean brayer to roll the back of the plate, pressing the image onto the
paper. Campers will repeat process with same foam plate on new sheets of paper.
SUN PRINT PHOTOGRAPHY
Visitors to the gallery will be introduced to black and white photographs of historical
figures as well as images of the desert. With the help of gallery staff the visitors will
learn about different genres of photography like portraiture and landscape, and be
guided through a conversation that teaches them how to look for clues in the art so
they can appreciate art wherever they go.
Sample Vocabulary:
Photograph • Photographer • Portrait • Landscape • Film • Camera • Negatives
Joshua Tree Landscape
•
Describe what makes a photograph a landscape:
o
Why do you think this is called a landscape?
o
What do you see? (Sky, trees, bushes, rocks, etc.)
o
What don’t you see? (People, buildings, etc.)
•
Let’s look for clues:
o
What do you see in this picture that tells us people have been here?
o
Do you think they are coming back?
•
Emotions:
o
What does this place smell like? Sound like? Feel like?
o
How does this landscape make you feel?
o
Is this a place you want to be?
•
Elements of Art:
o
What colors do you see in this photograph?
o
What colors would we see if we were actually here?
Suggested stories:
Sky Color by Peter H. Reynolds, Ish by Peter H. Reynolds
Art Project:
Using sun print paper visitors will produce a unique landscape using organic
materials and the film developing process. They will practice first with “negatives”
(black and white images pre-printed on transparency sheets. They will place them
over the sun paper and expose for 1-2 minutes. To stop the exposure they will dip
the paper in water and set aside to dry.
For their own landscape they will use petals, leaves and grass to create shapes and
lines they see in the landscape: rocks, mountains, trees. They will construct their
landscape on a transparency. When they are done they will place the transparency
on the sun paper and expose it for 1-2 minutes, then stop the exposure by dipping
the sun paper in water.
PAPERMAKING
(This gets messy!)
Supplies: scrap paper, pastels, blender, cup, water, window screen, linen cloth, old
towels, plastic bin, organic materials (flowers, seeds, etc.)
Steps:
1. Begin 4-5 pieces of scrap white paper.
2. Use the pastels to “dye” your paper—scribble, draw, blend, write secret notes.
(Remember how colors mix to make new colors.)
3. Tear the paper into small pieces.
4. Toss small pieces in blender.
5. Pour 1 cup water into blender.
6. With the lid on the blender, “blend” paper for 10-15 seconds.
7. Place screen in plastic bin.
8. Pour paper “pulp” over screen in bin.
9. Spread pulp evenly over screen.
10. Place linen sheet on top of towel next to bin.
11. Carefully lift screen and place on linen.
12. Place second screen on top of pulp.
13. Roll towel with linen, screen, and paper to squeeze out excess water.
14. Unroll towel and remove top screen.
15. Embed flowers, plants, seeds if you wish.
16. Place paper pulp on screen outside to dry.
17. When paper is dry peel off screen.
SUPPLY LIST
SKETCHBOOKS
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Newspaper comics, magazines for collage, or mulberry paper (Dick Blick)
Chip board/book board (Nasco, Aaron Brothers), backs of notepads
Drawing paper/copy paper
Yarn
Glue sticks
PINCH POT MONSTERS
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Clay (Nasco, Dick Blick, Michael's)
Clay tools (Nasco, Dick Blick)
Water dishes
SUN PRINT PHOTOGRAPHY
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Sun print paper (Dick Blick)
Transparencies (Office Depot)
Water bowl
Flowers/objects
PRINTMAKING WITH FOAM
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Printmaking foam (Nasco, Dick Blick), styrofoam plates
Stylus (Nasco, Dick Blick), pencils
Ink (Nasco, Dick Blick, Aaron Brothers)
Brayers (Nasco, Dick Blick)
Acrylic sheets (Home Depot)
PAPERMAKING
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Scrap paper
Blender
Pastels (Nasco, Dick Blick, Aaron Brothers, Michael's)
Window screen (Home Depot)
Linen cloth
Junk towels
Plastic bin
BOOKS THAT TEACH, CELEBRATE AND INSPIRE ART!
Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
Duck Rabbit by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
"Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists Series" by Mike Venezia
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty
Ish by Peter H. Reynolds
It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw
Lines That Wiggle by Candace Whitman
Little Blue and Little Yellow by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Mousterpiece by Jane Breskin Zalben
My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis
One Red Dot by David A. Carter
A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis
Perfect Square by Michael Hall
Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
Shades of People by Shelley Rotner
Sky Color by Peter H. Reynolds
When A Line Bends A Shape Begins by Rhonda Gowler Greene