First Grade and NH Animals

First grade students at our school study NH animals.  Every year the kids create their animal out of Model Magic.  Usually we create 3D animals but this year I decided to have them create a relief of their animal onto cardboard.  See my earlier post on how we made them. 
The students made careful sketches of their animal before we made them out of clay.  We used those sketches to trace onto foam plates and make NH animal prints.  We talked about basic printmaking tools; brayer, ink and bench hook.  This was a very exciting process for the kids to watch.  
We also helped make habitat murals for their classrooms.  We used large paper and cray-pa to draw details for pond, field and forest habitats and then liquid watercolors to fill in the background.  We got another use out of our animal sketches.  We colored them in and glued them into the mural and used scraps to add more details.

NH Animal Relief

NH Animal Prints

Model Magic People

First grade students worked with model magic clay creating these fun clay people.  We talked about different ways that we could roll, pinch, or stretch the clay to make the body parts.  We also talked about the difference between 2D and 3D artwork.  I love using model magic with my students.  It is a fun, non-messy way to practice handbuilding techniques.