Clay Pinch Pot Lions

I love to launch art projects from literacy. The words and pictures are so rich! We read the book, "Snow Lion". We drew lions afterward to focus on the coloring and parts that make a lion a lion!

The next week students formed a pinch pot, and a pancake. The pot became the lion's body, with feet and a tail. The pancake became the head and mane which the kids drew right on the clay  with a clay tool or a pencil. The tricky part, and a lesson I wanted them to learn, was how to use score and slip to attach 2 clay pieces together. Each piece has to be roughed up, or "scored". We carve a tic tac toe into the two pieces to be joined. The a bit of water is dripped onto the scratched parts to create "slip", or a clay-glue. Some students did better than others as they attached lion heads to bodies. The proof comes as I load dried pieces into the kiln for firing. Poorly joined heads slough off. Alas, there is always hot glue later......