Ceramic Frogs: Hand-building Techniques with Elementary Students

This lesson introduces second grade students to all three handbuilding techniques in a fun, engaging way. Students will be shown how to create a slab, pinch pot, and a coil to assemble a small ceramic frog. This is some student’s first introduction to clay, or 3D making practices. Students will complete their building process in one 30 minute class. After their piece is fired, students will paint their pieces with tempera paint. 

The second graders at this elementary school really really enjoyed making these frogs!! It was so fun to see each piece take on its own personality as students began to build and get a hold of the different hand building skills. Due to some issues with the firing process during our class rotation, we ended up teaching a little in-between lesson before painting. Each student created a backdrop for their frog! The students REALLY took this pretty loose lesson and ran with it! We gave the students oil pastels, and watercolor paint. They saw several examples of different styles they could try, including a few cartoonish styled pieces as well as work by Claude Monet.

Fine Arts Goals/Objectives:

Students will be able to create a slab 

Students will be able to create a pinch pot 

Students will be able to create a coil. 

Students will be able to assemble a project with a small amount of build time. 

Students will be able to aid their peers in completing their projects. 

Students will utilize different ceramic tools while creating their frog. 

Students will score and slip their piece together to ensure a stable build. 

Students will be able to paint their piece completely. 

Nat’l Core Arts Standards:

VA:Cr1.2.2a - Make art or design with various materials and tools to explore personal interests, questions, and curiosity.

VA:Cr2.2.2a - Demonstrate safe procedures for using and cleaning art tools, equipment, and studio spaces.

VA:Pr6.1.2a - Analyze how art exhibited inside and outside of schools (such as in museums, galleries, virtual spaces, and other venues) contributes to communities.

VA:Re8.1.2a - Interpret art by identifying the mood suggested by a work of art and describing relevant subject matter and characteristics of form.

Vocabulary Acquisition:

• Slab 

• Pinch Pot 

• Coil 

• Score and Slip 

• Ceramics 

• Clay 

• Kiln 

• Fired 

Artmaking Materials Needed: 

•  Clay 

• Canvas Mats 

• Smoothing tools 

• Rolling pins 

• Kiln 

• Cart 

• paper to cover tables

As a second introduction to clay, the kids REALLY loved this project!! They had such a blast adding their own personal touch to the basic frog structure. We did have SOME issues in the kiln, and had a few pieces destroyed. We ended up having those students come in and remake with regular clay if they were at school, but a few remade with Air Dry clay, AND painted on the same day, and they turned out AMAZING. I read online that it isn’t ideal to paint air-dry clay before it dries, but we just put the whole piece in front of a fan, and they dried just fine! Do note that we painted with tempera paint, not acrylic. I assume that because tempera is water based, the water was able to dry out of the clay THROUGH the tempera. I’m not a scientist though, so don’t take my word for it!

Overall, this lesson is super fun, and could likely be applied to first or second grade. I might even venture it with Kinders!!