Leadership Group Coil Pots

As I've mentioned before, our school has started focusing on leadership with our students, and we have started leadership clubs this year.  The students have been divided into groups with varying grade levels based on different areas of interest.  My group is called "Clay Kids" (15 kids), and we make functional ceramic artwork.

I am SO excited about these coil pots that the kids made.  We planted marigold seeds in them, and they are growing and doing great!  I've never grown flowers from seeds, and I am definitely enjoying having them in my room!  Hopefully they will continue to do well!

The coil pots were a challenge for the younger kids, but the older ones were wonderful mentors for them, and everyone had made one by the end of our club time!  We started with small balls of clay that the kids squished and worked with their hands to create round little slabs.  I had them use slip (which I don't usually do in a full class of  elementary aged kids) to help the coils adhere.  We still had some issues with construction though, and some of the pots ended up being a little shorter than their artist intended.

I poked holes in the bottoms of the pots with a straw once they had begun to dry a little, and the kids glazed them after they were bisqued.  On the club day that we planted the seeds, the students made the little popsicle stick flowers while they were waiting for their turn to plant their seeds.  I told the kids that I have never grown flowers from seeds before, and we wanted to be sure to have at least one flower in case the seed growing didn't go so well!