First grade students sculpted a relief tile of their favorite sea animal.
Gallery of Tiles
Kindergarten gallery of plates and Boxes

What we are learning about clay

Clay has been used by people to make pottery and sculpture for a very long time. Scientists study the pottery and sculpture and toys made by ancient people to learn more about the people's lives.

Clay is found in the ground. We know how to tell the difference between clay and dirt because clay is plastic. When it's dry it makes big cracks in the ground. Have you seen any clay in the ground?

Clay drys fast when we touch it.

Sometimes we have to wet our hands with a wet sponge to keep the clay from drying too fast.

We use slip every time we want to add another part to what we are making.

We are careful to smooth all the sharp edges with a sponge because the glaze will make sharp edges so sharp that they will cut us.

Clay has 3 distinct stages before firing it the first time. They are: wet, leather hard, and bone dry. Clay is very fragile, easy to break, before it is fired.

We fire the clay in a kiln that is powered by electricity. The kiln temperature reaches 1840 degrees. The ovens we cook in can only reach about 500 degrees.

After we fire the clay one time we can paint it with glaze. Glaze is made from powdered glass, or silica (Si) and various minerals that give the glaze a color.

Glaze makes our work shiny and colorful. Clear glaze on top of all the colors makes our work especially smooth and bright.

We enjoy looking at ours and our classmates' work when it is finished. We share compliments about our classmates' work.