Who says that all of the fun has to wait until the end of school on the Friday of Spring Break week?! I just had to share these guys... I ordered a bunch of air dry clay (don't judge; I'm pregnant and taking a break from kiln firings) to create percussion pods, as suggested in a lesson plan promoting specific materials and brands; lesson learned! I realized after many trial runs that the materials just didn't jive to create percussion pods. SO, what do we do with prepped clay balls and some extra wire?! We make birds! We got out a bunch of bird images (many of the 4th graders have been raising chickens in their classroom so their inspiration was fresh) and had some great discussions on the many different ways we could sculpt birds as well as consideration of balance and materials for the final project. Today our first class added wire into the birds and I was BLOWN away! These amazing little artists problem-solved and figured out wire solutions after a very simple and quick demonstration. As you can see, some students chose to balance birds on feet and some chose to balance birds on their bottoms with decorative legs coming off the front. I cannot WAIT to see them painted!!
