Piggies
 |
 |
 |
I like to give the kids repeated exposure to making things in clay. Imagine if you only got to try riding a bike one time, or could only try swimming once. You wouldn't be very good at it.
The art program that I teach enables the kids to use the same authentic art materials every year. My kindergarten students work with drawing materials, paints and clay, just the same as our 6th grade students. We don't make anything from Pringles cans or toilet paper tubes. The kids work like professional artists, they develop their skills through repeated exposures to real art materials. Their knowledge increases every year as they become more facile with these materials. What changes, is that the concepts get deeper and more meaningful each year.
These pigs are rural animals and are created as a connection to the second grade social studies curriculum where kids learn about communities. My second grade kids are already pretty amazing sculptors because of the clay experiences they have had in kindergarten and first grade.
