Celebrating Our Northeastern Birds

Second grade artists sculpted birds out of clay, honoring the variety of northeastern birds seen during the Fall. Northeastern birds are busy this time of year migrating south for the winter, or hunkering down nearby for the coming winter. For this project, students studied photographs of northeastern birds to determine basic shapes of birds and body parts. They then used their imaginations to embellish their animal creations. Students cut shapes from slabs to form the body, head, beak, wing and tail feathers of their bird. Once the clay was glazed and fired, scraps of fabric, ribbon and wire were used to add whimsical feet and feathers!

 

Through this project, students learned a range of ceramic hand building techniques. Slab building is a great way for students to learn the basic techniques of hand building with clay. Slabs can be manipulated to form closed vessels and other objects. Clay can be added to slabs to form 2-D and 3-D sculptures that can hang on a wall or rest on a flat surface.

 

Each sculpture is unique. Students were encouraged to start with a solid foundation and then put their own artistic spin on their birds.

 

A celebration indeed!