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Activities
Paper mache' container
- Choose something in your life that you would like to have a container for.
OR- Choose a special wish and make a container for it - what would represent that wish.
- It has to have an opening somewhere.
- Draw the side of the container on an 8 ½ by 11 piece of paper. The paper can be tall or wide. The vase picture must touch all sides of the paper somewhere.
- The vase has to have 3 or more things that represent the PURPOSE or the WISH in some way. This can be shape, color, patterns, words, pictures, things glued on the outside, or anything. Students get to decide what has meaning for them.
- The container has to sit up on its own.
- It's okay to borrow from any of the artwork viewed
- After making and painting the vessel, students write a paragraph that describes why they chose their PURPOSE or WISH, and why they picked the things that they used to describe it.
- Teacher takes digital photographs of each container, combines them in a Word document, and publishes a class "Book of ______Ware." Students can participate in naming the "volume."
Minerals and pigments
- Play the make a vase game and see what glazes for Talavera are made from (minerals).
- Visit the Mineralogy for Kids website to see where else in your household minerals are found, or what really makes up a mineral
http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/K12/K_12.html
- See what else we use some of the Talavera glaze minerals for today
* The following boxed sections are short, but not simple reading - teacher will need to help find the key words*
- Read "Cobalt in the 20th century" (box at bottom of page 1)
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/cobalt/210400.pdf- Read "Iron Oxide Pigments in the 20th century" (box at bottom of page 1)
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/iron_oxide/750400.pdf- Clay ceramics
- If clay use is appropriate, an easy way to make a cylinder is described at:
http://www.potterymaking.org/howto.asp
Click on "A Stick in the Mud"