Clay Leaf Bowls

For today's assignment, we made clay leaf bowls. We started off molding our clay, making sure all the air bubbles were out. We then rolled it out until it was about the width of our thumb. Placing the leaf cut out over our rolled out clay, we traced around it so that our leaf shape was in our clay. We then cut out our leaf shape. We fixed any jagged edges by using water to smooth everything. We had to continually make sure that our clay wasn't going to get stuck to the table. The teachers said we could put carved designs into our leaf bowl, so I drew leaf veins with my little stick to add my own touch. We then placed our leaves on a paper towel before putting them inside a plastic bowl, which over time as the clay dries will give our leaf a bowl shape. We painted our leaves colors that leaves are in real life. I chose orangeish red for my colors.

I think instead of using this project for 3rd grade, you could use it for older audiences, like 7th or 8th. It would go well with relating it to biology still, but using an older audience, you could go more into depth about why leaves change colors, relating it to what they're learning at that time about biology (plant vs animal cells). I think it would also be a good idea to really spread out this project; give students at least a few class periods to work on it, so they can really paint the entire thing and add what finishing touches they want.