Week 6: Build Me!

For this weeks lesson, we made dancing machines out of clay. It was a somewhat difficult process to teach (just like printmaking) because it takes several steps to create something out of clay. But to me and Lacey's surprise, the students did a phenomenal job making their machines.Overall, the lesson went well, even with the film crew. There was one thing that could have been done better, which was the demonstration of the clay. Since I took lead this week, I decided to show to the class a demo of how to use the clay. I started off smoothly letting the students feel the clay. And halfway through I got a little bit distracted by the students that I skipped a few crucial steps, like how to make a square out of clay. Even though I was distracted (and Lacey even tried to help me get on track and I just didn't realize that she was trying to get my attention....sorry Lacey), I noticed that the students were really interested in playing with the clay. I even had Elijah demonstrate to the class on how to make a square (which he squeezed the clay with both hands.) It was interesting to see how much the students knew about clay and how to build things with it.

Perhaps the demo was too long and not well planned out. However, I did learn that the students like to get involved. So maybe next time we could have students volunteer in the demo process (would this be a good suggestion?)

As for the centers, they were absolutely great. There were some students that really enjoyed

the photo center because they were able to take pictures using a camera. They took so many pictures using Lacey's camera. Another center that students were involved with was the drawing center. In this center, students used skewers and markers to draw on an already hardened clay. There were a lot of interesting drawings, especially drawings of cats and kittens.

Animals, especially cats, were a big theme this time in class. It actually started during sketchbook time when I read The Alley Cat's Meow to Shannon, Amila, and Taylor. Throughout the entire lesson, Shannon drew a cat in the drawing center and she made this beautiful cat out of clay. It was just interesting to see she used the book as a reference or a guide in both the center and the big activity.

Dancing Machines galore!