This was just another work day with the clay and the majority of the students were finished by the end of class. The students got right to work finishing and perfecting their slabs and everyone seemed to be highly focused and engaged in what they were doing.
One thing that struck both the art teacher and myself as odd though were the number of absences that class due to band lessons. When I was in school, we didn't have the option to take band until middle school, so the idea that elementary schoolers start to learn instruments other than the recorder and maybe the guitar is something totally foreign to me. The art teacher was visibly upset with how many students were pulled out of class for lessons and or were late because it put them behind on the schedule for clay. One boy was gone for almost the entire class period and was only there for the end of class which really irked the art teacher. She and the students got into a discussion about why they have to miss so much class time for their lessons. It doesn't seem like a very ideal situation for anyone involved and I hope that they can get something worked out so that the time students miss is minimized.
At the beginning of class, the students got their clay slabs back and several noticed a big problem with their clay... The slabs were cracked and split open in multiple places. While this isn't an uncommon problem while working with clay, it can be fairly frustrating and it takes time to fix. The students had to learn how to fix the cracks and smooth the slabs back into place as well as pick them up without breaking them. As the students were getting started, they were reminded of how to slip and score by the teacher and that they had to both build up and carve into their clay. Both the teacher and myself helped where needed to perform "surgery" on the cracked slabs.
Something that I noticed was that several students opted to make shapes only by cutting them out instead of using their hands to mold a needed shape. I think that this was because students are more used to drawing than to working with clay, so they figure that they can draw the shape in the clay and then cut it out with a tool. However this can become difficult when what they need to make is hard or they don't have enough clay to comfortably cut a shape out of. For example, one boy wanted to make a nose for the pug he was making, but didn't have enough clay to cut, and he had a little bit of difficulty with figuring out the right shape. He was getting a little flustered and I went and reminded him that his hands are also a tool and can sometimes do a better job than the clay tools provided, and I helped shape the nose.
Another thing that I thought was neat was that some students didn't confine themselves to the square shape they had previously made and expanded outwards. One boy nearly doubled the size of his slab with the addition of large ears for his dog's face, which took up the rest of the slab. The teacher also encouraged him to take some of the original slab surface away so that the dog's snout was protruding outwards more than the rest of the face.
Overall the projects that were produced were rather successful and everyone seemed pleased with what was created.