Week of 4/24/2022 - Oaxaca art and painting clay tiles

2nd grade students created art inspired by the animals in Oaxaca art from Mexico this week. They first responded to a photograph of a Oaxaca animal and we had a class discussion about how this animals looks like a combination of different animals - what parts it has from other animals? Is this animal real or imaginary and why?

We started by creating an oval for a turtle's body and I showed students options to add face, tail and patterns from other animals. They also added horns, legs and wings as they wished to.

It was interesting to see how we all started with an oval and branched out to creating a Oaxaca animal of our own. 

3rd grade students painted their bisque fired clay tiles with metallic paints.  I gave them an hour to make sure they covered every white spot on their tile. A new strategy I used here was for each student to get feedback from their peer and work on the suggestions before coming to me! This way I knew 2 people had already looked at a tile before it was brought to me. It gave students giving feedback a chance to understand the expectations and requirements. I love how each tile looks like it is made of metal even though the actual material is clay!