Ceramic Pendants

 Students learned about the Elements of Art by studying ancient symbols. I added two ipads to my classroom tools, much to the delight of my students. They found thousands of symbols online at www.symbols.com. A really cool site that allows the user to search symbols in a variety of ways, from the visual attributes to the meanings.
During a week of station work students rotated through six activities exploring signs, symbols and designs through a variety of media such as colored pencil, India ink, oil pastel and tempera paint.
They loved the freedom of moving through the stations at their own pace, working with friends and trying out different media. It was a fun, relaxed time that allowed my student teacher and me to really get to know our students as we had time to talk to individuals and small groups.

After station work the unit culminated with everyone creating several pendants in clay. One could be a modern, everyday symbol and one pendant needed to incorporate an ancient symbol into the overall design. We cut shapes from slabs, allowed them to dry to leather-hard, then carved designs into the clay. A very fun process!
We decided to paint the pendants in acrylic paint rather than glaze as this allowed the students greater control of color and detail.
I was amazed that these 7th and 8th graders, boys and girls alike, enjoyed stringing and beading and walked out of the classroom wearing their pendants! who would have thought this could be cool!