Creating Clay Pots and Artistic Volume

Name: Felisa Alberts
Date: April 24, 2013
Lesson Name:
Creating Clay Pots and Artistic Volume

Materials used:
-I used Paints from Michael's, it's about 50 cents for a 2 ounce container of Acrylic Paint.
-Paint Brushes
-Plastic Bag
-Using things around the house, you can create the clay. It's a cheap recipe and allows students to make it in class with VERY LITTLE mess:

Emily's Fantastic No Cook Playdough Recipe
This one was doing the rounds when my children were toddlers. Not sure who Emily is - but her recipe is great!

2 cups of plain/all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup cold water
1 tbspn oil (vegetable oil is fine - baby oil smells lovely).

Drop the ingredients into a plastic bag and seal. Let the children knead them together inside the bag - then tip it out for modeling fun.

 

 

 

 

*Hint: If you don't want to spend money on paint, you can buy kool aid packages and use them as food coloring, it's cheaper and adds quick color to the play dough.

Any resources that helped inspire this project: My love of math and play dough!

List the subject that your lesson ties in with: This lesson is art centered. Math is integrated into it and you can also tie science and scientific method into this lesson.

Step-by-step with text and photos:

1. Get a plastic bag and the materials listed above. Drop the materials into the plastic bag and begin to knead them together. It will look similar to this. *BE SURE TO ADD FOOD COLORING OR KOOL AID IF YOU'D LIKE COLORED PLAY DOUGH*

 

 

2. Have students construct a cylinder pot. They may paint this pot however they'd like.

 

 

The Math Part

3. The next day, the teacher will discuss volume and what it looks like. Some questions that the teacher could ask are:

       -What does volume look like?

       -What do you think is the volume of your cylinder?

       -How do we solve for volume?

       -Can we use volume in the real world?

4. The teacher will talk explain volume and how to find it.

5. The students will then calculate the volumes for their individual pots. They will then measure out that volume using a beaker. They will pour that amount into their pot.

6. Students will then analyze the results. Were their predicts right or inaccurate? Why is that? How could they have conducted their experiment better?

 



Extra tips for problem-solving:

HAVE EXTRA SALT ON HAND! I found out, without the salt, it takes hours for this play dough to absorb the water.

Art Vocabulary:
-Color
-Texture
-Medium