Survey Says: CLAY!

I'm going to be returning to my teaching schedule soon and wanted to poll my previous after school students to see what they wanted to see more of in the coming year and the media that won was: CLAY!

This is probably no surprise to some of you, but this means I am going to make a serious effort to include some awesome clay projects with this year's classes! This does take a bit of planning since I don't have a kiln--this means air dry clay it is. I have some plans for Model Magic, Crayola Air Dry Clay, and plans to test a couple of new (to me) air dry clays on the market. Any suggestions?

Another downfall: drying space. Since I'm "art on a cart" I don't have space to store the items safely where I teach while they dry. That means I pack all the clay items up, load them in the car and bring them home to dry until the next class. This stresses me out! I worry that one of my kids will get into them or the dog will knock them over. I'm come up with some good ways to transport and store clay creations in progress, but it will be nice when I don't have to worry about moving them.

So, without further ado, I repost this lovely "Forever Sandcastle" post I did awhile back. The lesson is from Family Fun magazine and is really fun for the children to make. Make one yourself and enjoy those summertime memories all year long!

Whip up a batch of air dry sand clay
to make a forever sandcastle of your own!

Summertime! At least for a few more weeks here in NH!

I try to keep my children's reading, writing, and math skills up over the summer. We start out strong, but I must say, I have had to "renegotiate" the summer contracts with my children this year. This is a skill that now makes me ready for the United Nations!

Anyway, I had my middle son write some poetry, type it into the computer, and then illustrate it. Since his poem was about "Summertime," he decided to do a variation of the flip flop collage project I posted about here.

He had a great time writing this, typing it in, and creating the 3D flip flops--especially when he found the minions in an ad = instant minion flip flops!

This would be a great sneaky project to get your kids to do a bit of writing before the end of the summer while preserving those summer memories. Or, if you are a teacher, it's a great welcome back project for integrating art and language arts!

Enjoy the rest of YOUR summer!