Fabulous Fish!

It's that time of year...CLAY! First graders are using clay to create textured fish.  We went on a texture hunt around the room finding new and interesting textures, made rubbings of different textures, and then began our clay fish.  Before starting our clay fish, we looked at photos of fish and named all the important parts including: gills, fins, tails, eyes, mouths, scales, and sometimes long noses.

 

1. Students roll a sphere with the clay. Flatten the clay into a "pancake". We discuss how pancakes are not super thin. That's a crepe!  Pancakes are also not super thick.  They won't cook all the way through then!

Students then fold the sides up to look like a taco. They pinch the two sides of the taco together in the middle and continue pinching down one side.  They leave one side open for the mouth of the fish.  Then students get to create texture on their fish using materials such as: pasta, forks, combs, sticks, marker caps, buttons, and much more!  Eyes and fins are added on with a pinch of extra clay.  They learn how to score and slip to make things stick.