I enthusiastically planned to make pottery for two of my homeschool art classes, figuring that if it was a big flop, at least we had tried and hopefully had had fun smushing the clay with our hands.
It was not a flop, instead it was a wonderful experience that we all enjoyed.
The first class period, they were given a slab of air dry clay. I ordered this on Amazon. (The younger ones got Crayola Model Magic which is much easier to work with. I got that at Dollar General. They come in little packages just the right size for each student.) I got all white clay so that we could paint it later.
During the first class we learned to wedge, roll, shape, make a pinch pot, and make coil pottery. The younger ones made pinch pots; the older ones made coil pottery. I gave them several ideas: pencil holders, cups with handles, adding coils to the top or sides, etching designs on the sides, etc. Then I set them loose.
When they were finished we let them dry on paper plates with their names written on them. The teachers retrieved these two days later and wrote the students' names on the bottom of their creations after they were fully dried.
The second class we painted them. We let the paint dry while we had a P.E. class (hair dryers sped up the process). The moms helped with that while I ran relay races with the students and jumped through a hula hoop with a funny hat on my head.
Next, we glazed them with water-based Minwax varnish. I stressed to the students (and had them repeat me several times) that they are not safe to drink or eat out of. But, I have a dream of having a real kiln and making stuff that we could really eat out of some day . . .
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