Clay Dragons: Fifth Grade 3D Sculpture with Balance

In fifth grade, students made clay dragons.  This takes four to five class periods.  I begin with the history of the Welsh dragon (my family is Welsh) vs. the Chinese dragon.  The Welsh dragon has four legs, wings, is always red, and flies.  The Chinese dragon is serpent like with four legs, no wings and guards the sea, not the sky.

The first day we create the body.  I tell my students that at the end of class they will have a clay table!  We wedge a ball of clay into a sphere.  I explain that wedging clay removes air bubbles and that clay can explode in the kiln if this important step is skipped.  Then we cut a plus sign into the clay, about half way through.  I saw this technique on YouTube.  Each of the four sections is shaped into a leg.  This way the body is not too thick and will not need to be hollowed out!  The students put their name on the belly, put their dragon onto a plastic plate and into a two gallon Ziploc bag for the next art period.  I make sure that bags are labeled ahead of time so that messy clay fingers aren't trying to write with sharpies!

Day two is devoted to the head(s) and tail(s).  Students have made up to 5 heads, but the more heads they have, the greater the chance that they will fall off.  I show the class how to slip and score to add an oval of clay onto the front and back of the body.  Then we take clay tools (toothpicks, popsicle sticks, marker caps) and create our details on the head and tail.  Then we add a little water and put it back into the bag for the end of class.

Day three is devoted to the wings and spikes.  We begin by rolling out a slab of clay about as thick as your finger.  Then we approximate how large we want our wings to be.  We create one and check to see if it is the correct size.  Once we are happy with one wing, students flip that wing over onto the remainder of the clay slab and trace it so that both wings match.  Then we slip and score the wings on.  We add spikes with the scrapes left over from the wings, cutting small clay triangles to our desired size.

Day four is for finishing up any details that have been overlooked, or if a student was absent or at band/orchestra practice during class. This is a great opportunity for teamwork.  The students that are finished can help out the students that are still working.

I let the dragons dry for at least a week before putting them in the kiln.  Once they have been fired we choose two main colors for our dragon and the first day of painting, they cover the entire dragon with one of these two colors.  Day two of painting, the students are given tiny, detail brushes to finish their dragons in any colors they choose.  As these dragons are drying, all of the younger grade levels have enjoyed admiring the dragons, anxiously awaiting their turn to make them!