Fossil Fish

Students will talk about fossils and learn new vocabulary words including "Paleontologist". They will create their own fossil fish using the slab method with clay. After the clay is dry, they will be fired and painted using tempera cake paints.

This lesson will teach the students the importance of a paleontologist, and work to connect art to other important subjects. It will also teach them about form since clay is a 3-Dimensional medium. On their fish they will get to practice proper body part placement, and different patterns to create scales.

Objectives:

• To show students the slab method of creating with clay
• To teach them about the different ways of making marks in clay (stamping, scratching, addition, subtraction)
• To understand the process of creating with clay and its stages (greenware, leather-hard, bone-dry)

Materials:

• Sketch Paper
• Clay
• Clay Mat
• Clay Tools
• Tempera Paint

Vocabulary

• Clay slab
• Fossil
• Paleontologist
• Kiln
• Greenware, leather-hard, bone-dry

Bonus Activity