Clay Flowers made by 3rd Grade

I’m in love with these gorgeous clay flowers my 3rd graders made.

This summer when I was on vacation in Michigan, I saw some lovely clay wall hangings in an artsy shop.  They were layered clay flowers and they were HUGE!  They were so awesome.  I thought my students could make something similar on a smaller scale.

The kids learned how to roll out a clay slab.  Then, they cut out various flower templates, traced them and cut them from clay.  The students could change the templates as they wished to alter the look of their flower.  They cut out 2-3 layers of flower shapes.  Then, they could choose to roll texture into their clay using texture rollers.

Next, they attached the layers of flowers together by scoring, adding water and smoothing.  They could turn and roll the petals to add dimension.  One or two students turned up the petals to make a little dish in the center.  Some students got really creative and added little creatures on their flower (like the lizard above.)

We painted our projects with a variety of clay glazes, mostly the Teacher’s Palette brand from Amaco (those are my favorites now.)