Wednesday, June 2, 2010

My Favorite Art Lesson of the Year

My favorite elementary art lesson is one of the last ones I teach in the year. Clay gargoyles. Our county has us teaching this lesson to fifth grade. Every one of them turns out wonderfully.






I'm so sad to see them leave the art room, but it does make me happy that this is one art product that never ever ends up in the trash can.

15 comments:

Julia said...

I love them. I can just see them on a building in the Ghost Busters movie. Kids are so creative!

Julie said...

These are amazing and wonderful, Jan! Who would ever think this would be an art subject matter for elementary students! I would think middle school would be more age appropriate...but, hey...i can definatly see a 5th grader loving this!!!

Hope Chella said...

absolutely gorgeous!!! I love gargoyles and can't wait to do them someday with my students :)

Pink Feather Paradise said...

Gargoyles are so cool and I love spotting them when I visit historic houses over here in England... next time I take some photo's and send them over to you... lol

X Alex

GratefulPrayerThankfulHeart said...

I can see why this would be fun for both teacher and student. My kids still make faces like that :)

Little Ol' Liz said...

Those Gargoyles rock!

I can't tell you how many projects came home with the story of "Mom, someone's project exploded in the kiln and...." I have ZERO art projects from 2 kids, one now in High School, one in Middle School. I've said it before but it bears repeating; your students have a real gem in you. And that's from the very bottom of my heart.

Unlimited said...

I walked into a 5th grade classroom today, and most of the students had these awesome products sitting with them at their seats. And one student in particular was caressing his, staring at it. He was so proud.

Sweet Virginia Breeze said...

Those kids are so creative! I just love the gargoyles. I bet they had fun making them.

Blink said...

I'm looking at Kerry's gargoyle in our kitchen done years ago (she's a senior now). Great project!

Phyl said...

Love the gargoyles! I can only use air dry clay (no kiln) and these would certainly break, but, papier-mache freak that I am, I'm thinking of gargoyles that way, or with plaster bandage.
Please come visit my site! 'There's a Dragon in my Art Room' at http://plbrown.blogspot.com/

Phyl said...

Hmmm - just thought I left a comment - let's try again...
Love the gargoyles! I use air dry clay (no kiln) and it is very breakable, but, being quite a freak for papier-mache, I bet that would be a really fun way to make gargoyles too!
Come visit my site 'There's a Dragon in my Art Room' at http://plbrown.blogspot.com/

Elenka said...

That is something the kids will have forever.
I always tell the kids when we do clay that they better make sure that whatever they make is wonderful because fired clay is practically indestructible. Oh, it may break but it will never decompose! So 500 years from now someone might dig up your project and your name will be on it!!

random Cindy said...

These are great! May have to try this at home.

sallgood said...

Hi! These are really cool! I'd love to talk to you about how your curriculum is set up- I've been asked to help rewrite the curriculum used by the monthly Art Docents at one of my schools.

(stephanieallgood@hotmail.com)

Unknown said...

These are fabulous, and you're right, each one is successful! Can you share the lesson plan, or the directions you gave the students?

Thanks, Jennifer