Unit Objectives 

Ceramics 

• Develop basic hand building techniques; simple modeling, forming coils and slabs, assembling clay forms, using simple clay working tools 
• Use paint, slip and glass to finish clay surfaces and what learn glaze is
• Develop an awareness of working with clay as a means of creative expression

Science 

• Identify animals and environmental elements found in a particular habitat.
• Distinguish between living and non-living things
• Identify the basic needs of an animal
• Use observation skills
• Compare the living and non-living components of one habitat with those of a different habitat

Unit Outline

Week #1 Discussion of habitat animals.

Students construct clay models of an animal they have chosen from one of the class selected habitats.

Week #2 Discussion of habitat elements.

Students create clay models of living and non-living things that are present in the animal's habitat.

Week #3 Discussion of animals in their habitats. 

Students paint their fired clay animals and habitat pieces.

Week #4 Discussion of animals' relationships to their habitats.

Students create clay "island" habitats that contain the basic components necessary for an organism to survive.

Week #5 Discussion of fossils and imprints.

Students create imprints in clay of tree leaves.

Week #6 Discussion of student's choice.

Students construct clay objects of their own choosing (e.g. cups, bowls, figures).

Science Objectives - Done prior to Ceramics Lesson 1

• Identify animals found in an aquatic habitat and a terrestrial habitat (e.g. rain forest and ocean)
• Choose one of the habitats and an animal from that habitat to represent using clay
• Sketch or locate photographs of the chosen animal

• Become familiar with basic material characteristics of clay
• Develop simple modeling technique and learn to form coils and assemble clay shapes to create an animal

Materials Needed
newspaper for covering tables
clay
containers of water
pin tools

Lesson Procedure Outline:

Introduction

1. Review the definition of habitat.
2. Create lists on the board of with the two chosen habitats as headings. Have the students contribute their animal name to the appropriate list. Use this list when introducing modeling techniques used to form animal bodies.
3. Discuss clay, its sources, uses, general physical characteristics and the firing process.

1. Demonstrate techniques for shaping clay into coils, balls, etc.
2. Demonstrate how to attach clay pieces using water to create slip that acts like a glue to hold the pieces together.
3. Introduce the pin tool as a tool that can be used for cutting clay or for adding details like eyes and fins to animal body pieces.
4. With the sketch or photograph of their animal as a guide, each child will then make his/her own animal using demonstrated techniques.
5. Help students individually with both the technical aspects of working with the clay as well as by engaging the children in discussions about the characteristics of individual animals.

 

Extension/Activities
Students may also create their animal's offspring.

Science Objectives - Done prior to Ceramics Lesson 2 

• Distinguish between living and non-living components of a habitat
• Identify the basic needs of an animal
• Sketch environmental elements around the animal sketch/picture used in lesson #1 

• Use the basic hand building techniques learned in lesson #1 to make environmental elements for lesson #1 animals 
• Use pieces of wire screen to shape clay into tree tops and other plant life

Materials Needed
clay
pin tools
pieces of wire screen (~ 2" squares)
containers of water
newspaper for covering tables

Lesson Procedure Outline:

Introduction

1. Review last week's lesson and discuss the firing process of the clay animals. 
2. Discuss with students the environmental features found in the chosen habitats.
3. List students' ideas of features found in each of the chosen habitats.

 

1. Review clay techniques used in lesson #1. Demonstrate using these same clay forms to create environmental elements.
2. Introduce the window screen as a tool to create tree tops, coral, etc.
3. With their habitat sketches as a guide, each child will make living and non- living elements that the animal they modeled in lesson #1 encounters throughout the day or that are necessary for the animal's survival.
4. Help students individually with both the technical aspects of working with the clay as well as by engaging the children in discussions about the elements that their animal encounters throughout the day and those elements that are necessary for survival.

 

Extension / Activities
Each child may tell a story about what their animal would encounter in its environment during the course of a day.

• Use acrylic paints to finish fired pieces from lessons #1 & 2.

Materials
acrylic paints
paint brushes
ice cube trays or egg cartons for holding paints
containers of water
newspaper for covering tables
unlined paper

Lesson Procedure Outline:
Introduction

1. Discuss with the children the colors found in nature - working realistically as opposed to imaginatively
2. Using animals that the students have modeled as examples, ask students to identify the colors that the animals are in the natural world.

1. Discuss painting techniques (e.g. handling and rinsing brushes, painting details last).
2. Students work individually to paint their animals and environmental objects with help from the teachers as needed.
3. As students finish, they can be given sheets of paper to paint two dimensional versions of animals and environmental objects.

Ceramics Objective -

• Use hand formed slabs to make individual "island" habitats for a specific animal
• Use small pieces of beach glass to simulate water

• Identify the basic needs of an animal
• Introduce the idea of changing matter (glass) from a solid phase to a liquid phase using heat

Materials
clay
pin tools
containers of water
wire screen
beach glass
newspaper for covering tables

Lesson Procedure Outline:
Introduction

1. Students will identify the basic needs of an animal. List their ideas.
2. Display a finished example of an island habitat, pointing out the animal's relationship to its environment and the use of melted glass to simulate water.

 

1. Demonstrate how to form a slab by hand.
2. Review the use of the wire screen.
3. Discuss how to use pieces of beach glass to simulate water on the slab.
4. Each student will work individually to create an island habitat that is inhabited by at least one animal and contains all of the basic needs in order for the animal to survive. 
5. Help students individually with the technical aspects of working with the clay. Also engage each student in a story-telling discussion about the island habitat that they are creating (e.g. what animals live in the habitat, where the animals live, what they eat/drink, etc.).

 

Extension / Activities
Students may write or tell stories about their habitats.

Ceramics Objectives - 

• Use rolling pins and cloth to roll clay into a uniform slab and to roll a leaf into the slab to make an imprint
• Use white slip as a means of surface decoration
• Discuss glaze as a material and as a way of finishing ceramic surfaces (The clear glaze used in this project is applied outside of class by the ceramics teacher.)

• Observe and describe, using illustrations and words, a tree and its leaves as well as the tree's surrounding habitat
• Sketch a tree found in the habitat studied
• Collect leaves from the tree used for sketching
• Use the leaves collected to create an imprint

Vocabulary
glaze
imprint
fossil

Materials
clay
pin tools
rolling pins (12")
canvas (12" squares)
leaves
markers with interesting tops
white slip
paint brushes
containers of water
newspaper for covering tables

Lesson Procedure Outline:
Introduction

1. Identify different fates of leaves when they fall from trees (e.g. carried by the wind, broken down, buried underground, etc.).
2. Discuss the process by which leaves may become fossilized. 
3. Display an example of a leaf imprint pointing out the details of the actual leaf and how its characteristics have been preserved in a permanent piece.
4. Discuss the use of slip and glaze to finish a surface.

 

1. Demonstrate forming a slab by first flattening the clay by hand (as in Lesson 4) followed by rolling the clay on canvas with a rolling pin. 
2. Place a leaf in the center of the slab and press the leaf in with the rolling pin. The slab can then be cut into a specific shape.
3. Form and attach coils to frame the slabs.
4. Use marker tops, pin tool handles or other common objects to make decorative imprint on the frame.
5. Coat the exposed portion of the slab, and perhaps the frame also, with slip. The leaf can then be peeled off to reveal the completed imprint.
6. Throughout the imprint making process, help students individually with the technical aspects of working with the clay. 

 

Ceramics Objectives:

• Use simple modeling techniques and/or to make pieces of own choosing and/or make three dimension shapes out of slabs
• Use white and brown slip as a means of surface decoration (The clear glaze used in this project is applied by the ceramics teacher as in Lesson #5.)
• Recognize that clay can be used as a means of personal expression

• Practice manipulating materials

Lesson Procedure Outline:
Introduction

1. Students are told that they can create pieces of their own choosing.
2. Students suggest things that can be made with clay.

1. Review slab making from lesson #5. Demonstrate how a slab can be used to make three dimensional shapes like cylinders and boxes.
2. Students suggest what the three dimensional shapes might be used for.
3. Review using slip and marker cap designs for decorating pieces.
4. Students work individually with help from the teachers as needed.

 

Resources

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•  Animals, Habitats and Clay 
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Culminating Question

Project

Assessment