In a land and time far, far away, I taught children’s clay classes. I taught at an after school enrichment program in Denver at an elementary school and I also taught a few kid’s art camps at the Art Student’s League of Denver and Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, CO. Recently, a teacher friend asked me for some clay project advice for her students and I was reminded of the variety of children’s clay projects I taught over the span of 3 years.
I had a ton of fun teaching these projects and classes. Kids are innately creative and are not afraid of breaking the “rules” when it comes to art making.
After I pulled out a number of photos for my friend as reference, I decided that I should probably make a page on my website that features the variety of children’s clay projects that my students made. Teaching also benefitted my own clay practice.
Children’s Clay Class Age Ranges
The kids I taught ranged from five to thirteen years old. Typically, I broke the classes up into K – 1st grade, 2nd – 5th grades and then 6-8th grades. I find that the younger children have less dexterity and need more hands on help than older students. Also, some projects were just too complicated for the really young students.
A Sample of Children’s Clay Projects
References
Some of the children’s clay projects that I taught are ones that originated out of my own clay practice. We made a variety of functional items like soup can mugs, plates and other items. I also referenced a book titled, Ceramics for Kids by Mary Ellis. Often, making a project would spark new ideas and of course the kids made suggestions for projects that they were interested in making.
If their suggestion was reasonable, I usually tried to make it happen. I would generally make the project ahead of time to use as a reference and then develop a lesson plan around the clay project.
My classes ran 2 hours after school. We typically made the project one week and then glazed the next and allowed plenty of time for a snack and clean up since we used the art room in the elementary school.
Other projects ideas:
- rattles
- whistles
- fairy houses
- marionettes
- bowls
- cupcake jars
- and more
Stay tuned for a website update. I’ll add a page along with lots of photos of children’s clay projects.
