With first grade, we added those awesome little mosaic pieces to "jazz up" our pinch pots.

The students could use a pattern if they chose, but it wasn't a requirement.

Most pinch pots were very successful, although I did have to mend a few because the mosaic pieces were pushed into the clay too hard.

Glazing all these cute little pots was a bit much for this art teacher, so I may have to bribe some volunteers to help me out. :)

Third grade just finished painting these with watered down tempera paints. I think the colors turned out awesome! I have done so much with glazes in the past years and I haven't been able to get such brilliant colors with them, that's why I have used the watered down tempera and the acrylic paints. I suppose that the fun glaze colors are not lead free, and I know that the ones that are can be so draining on an art budget.
I have always called these blow fish, I guess because their mouths are so large. So simple to make! I give the kids a chunk of clay, cut right off the 25 pound block, and they make a simple pinch pot. Setting the pot on it's side is what creates that large mouth. I demonstrate a variety of tail shapes and of course we go through the big shpeal ( how do you spell that anyways?) of scoring, wetting and wiggling the clay together to make it stay. The eyes come next and the kids are free to add any other embellishments they want, as long as they score, wet and wiggle it together. And wa-la, the hour is over and it's onto the next class waiting at the door to come in...

Putting a twist on the old pinch pot - adding feet! Along with adding feet, either two or four, the kids could add embellishments with the clay. Some added belts, spikes or balls along the top. Instead of glazing these, we used acrylic paints and finished by spraying with a clear acrylic spray.

There was a lot of extra clay left over from various projects this year, so I decided to have the kindergarten students make a pendant for their "someone special" on Mother's Day. I cut out the clay into rectangular shapes and they used a variety of items to add the texture. Once fired, I watered down some tempera paints and used a clear varnish over the top once dry. Attached some cord for the necklace and packaged them up in little envelopes with a small handmade card. Lots of Oohhs and Ahhs!!!!