5th Grade Pottery Class

Welcome to 5th Grade Pottery. Making cottages using the slab method is our first project. We gain an appreciation of three dimensional art by working with slabs of clay. We cut slabs of clay by hand, use paper templates to make shapes, and use coils and slip for sealing.

Students learn about Jan Richardson, owner of Windy Meadows Pottery in Maryland and an artist who makes intriguing houses. We have classroom demonstrations showing how houses and cottages are constructed and decorated with simple embellishments.

The student constructs and decorates a cottage. It then dries for two to four days before the bisque firing which turns the cottage a terra cotta color. After bisquing, the cottage roof is stained and the cottage is glazed and fired.

Students are encouraged to make new links and understandings in their experiences. While they may be focusing in clay at a particular moment, they may also be touching on, for example, concepts which relate to math, science, history or geography. Through direct contact with clay, children touch, handle and feel the clay in its many stages. Through this contact they are able to develop unique personal insights into the character of the material, its weight, surface and sometimes even see and feel the marks left by their own hands and others.

This project does not give instant results. In this way, students learn that art is a process, a process that requires patience, care and diligence. For me, as a teacher, each day is a creative experience.

5th grade students also make Black & White plates using the sgraffito technique. This involves scratching or incising through a colored slip or glaze to reveal a different color underneath. It is one of the most common and most widespread decorative techniques, found in all ages and cultures. Although extremely easy, it can be used to produce extremely intricate and varied effects. Sgraffito designs can be scratched through colored slip while still wet, or left until the surface is leather-hard or even bone dry.

Students make plates using the slab drape mold technique. The plates are painted with a black underglaze. Designs are drawn lightly on painted plates with pencil and negative space is scratched or incised. Multiple layers of color can be used to produce a more colorful arrangement. Critical thinking must be used to apply the many principles and elements learned in designing and making plates.