Sea-s the Clay- A School-wide, Florida based, Art Adventure

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 506

On April 15th, Champion had an incredible Art Show featuring the works of our VPK, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade students. In addition, we had a beautifully written and performed original musical put on by Music Club and our phenemonal music teacher.
The art show featured the work of our vpk, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd grade students.

This was their art show and celebration of their hard work, for the year. The works and progression from the beginning of the year until current, have been amazing!

To anyone wondering, 3rd, 4th, and 5th had an art show as well in December.

This year the goal for our art program at Champion, is to learn about our Sunshine State, and use that knowledge to create art that will create a difference. With that goal in mind, we took off and have created hundreds of pieces of art-reflecting what we have learned about this year. This grant specifically touches on our clay projects-but please know that the supplies purchased surpassed even the project request, and paints were able to be used to support several 2D projects as well.

For this show:

VPK students created fish with fun textures, and painted them with their choice of colors. We created a small installation just for them, rather than the original design with them grouped with Kindergarten. They deserved their own space to shine! Their fish were placed among lily pad paintings they did, to create a large pond setting. We learned a lot about pond life, and how important it is, and shared information about it for the public to read.

For our event, Kindergarten students created ocean animals with clay, to live among a grand coral reef. The coral reef is constructed of small sculptures, recycled art and materials, and is a collaborative piece created by all grade levels- during choice based lessons. The clay was different depending on the class. Different subjects were selected for each group, to make it more engaging for all! We not only created, but learned about the reefs and these impactful animals. We created sea turtles, sea stars, and sharks.

First grade students created crabs that live among the mangroves that are so important to our native wildlife. The mangrove tree will be made entirely with materials that have been recycled and/or reused instead of sending the items to a landfill. Although much of the construction was by myself, painting it, making the painted papers used for each hand created leaf-was mostly the students. It came together as a really fun feature that even extended into being used during Earth Day and Arbor Day for the Media Center the following week.

The clay creatures created feature often overlooked creatures that live among the mangroves along our Florida shorelines, crabs! Students got to choose between hermit crabs or other species of crabs native to Florida. We looked at references to determine colors and shapes, while creating and then painting. The kids did a phenemonal job learning about the crabs, and it was interesting to see how different hermit crabs are from other crabs.

2nd grade students specifically created insects based on insects that we commonly see in Florida, with a recommendation of making Florida Native Species. We spent time learning about symmetry in art, the importance of insects in an ecosystem, and spending time to create their own choice insect. Insects were placed on display, surrounding another collaboratively created, tree stump and fallen branches, that show how valuable the fallen foliage is for the lives of insects and maintaining a biodiverse ecosystem. The tree stump was created using mostly recycled materials from the school, along spray insulation foam (done by myself), and paint. Sticks were created entirely with recycled materials around campus, tape, and paint. 

All clay creations feature choice textures with the clay tools purchased through this request. Students were able to add details with the clay tools, and patterns to suit their subject matter. 

Apart from these grades, 3rd-5th grade have all created clay pieces inspired by Florida as well.
Students in 3rd grade each had a different native Florida species to focus on-with four classes creating different things. We made foxes, deer laying in grass, American alligators, and Florida Scrub Jays. We used the clay tools purchased to create textures and form the clay to look more realistic than what it could just by hand.
4th grade had a very open assignment. They were allowed to make any Florida animal, but they had to design it in their sketch book first and then run it by me before creating their piece. I had to approve it, to ensure it was a native Florida species. Then they used the air dry clay as well as the clay tools to create their pieces. Many of these pieces were used to photograph the original impact statement I submitted, and more images will be added to show the art show as a whole.
With our schedules shifting for testing season, we have not yet completed 5th grade's bleached coral pieces. 5th grade was scheduled to make 2 clay pieces for this school year. One being our tradition of the dragon eye, and the other being the new bleached coral piece. Because of scheduling, the dragon eye was voted as the top by choice by 5th graders, so we moved forward with that. Students were asked to be inspired by Florida in some way, with their design-but it was allowed to be abstract and have some fantasy elements in it, due to the nature of the subject. Students created space themes inspired by the Kennedy Space Center, ocean themes and envrionmentally impacted themes with beaches, boats integrated, and more. 

Thank you again so much for choosing to support this grant and our school. My students and I are so thankful for the opportunities provided by this experience. Your support has impacted our school more than we could have ever imagined!