1. The students got a handful of clay, warmed and softened it up with water and formed the small, medium and large balls of their snowman. To connect the shapes, they needed to score (scratch with a fork) the sides of the balls that would touch each other. After securely pressing the scored edges to each other, they could add decorations as desired: carrot noses, buttons, hats, etc. What turned out to be key in making connections was having very soft and damp clay, very defined scratches, and literally “screwing” the shapes into each other. Clay shrinks as it dries so smooth edges just seem to pop apart. Pipe cleaners were stuck into the sides for temporary arms.

2. After drying for several days in the sun, the pipe cleaner arms were removed and the clay was fired in a kiln.

3. The pipe cleaners were placed back in the arm holes, and the students painted the snowman with glaze.

4. The pipe cleaners were removed, and the snowmen were fired for the last time. When cooled, small twigs were placed in the arm holes.

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1. I started by giving the students watercolor paper and a pencil. They are to draw, as lightly as they can, three to five ovals, which will be their sheep bodies.

2. Next they get a white crayon and are to color heavily inside the ovals. Even when they think they are done, ask them to color a little bit more.

3. Give the students a choice of dark crayon colors for their sheep head and feet, such as purple, black or blue. With one color, they need to draw a triangle for the head, two ears to the side and four lines for the feet. These shapes also need to be colored in really well so that they will show up later.

4. Green crayons may be distributed to draw just a few grass lines.

5. Finally, I like to have liquid watercolor paint on hand so the students may pick one color and paint over their entire drawing. The crayon will resist the paint and the white bodies will now show up because of the background color – like magic!

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1. I plan on making cardboard hand templates for my younger students as I know how awkward tracing hands can be for some. Their instructions will be to trace as many hands as they can on a piece of paper, all of them just touching each other to create lots of closed spaces. No overlapping!

2. After the hands are traced in pencil, the lines are traced with a fat black Sharpie marker.

3. The hands are colored in with oil pastels, using as many combinations as possible. My sample uses peach, golden brown, medium brown, pink and white in different layers.

4. Lastly, the closed shapes around the hands are colored with different pastels.

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1. I used a letter-size paper and coffee cup to trace the overlapping circles as shown in diagram one.

2. A third circle is centered below the first two. All of the circles need to overlap to create the middle triangle-like shape that will become the nose.

3. The middle black shape is filled in with black marker, and two eyes and two teeth are added.

4. Two ears are attached to the top circles and then whiskers that are coming out from the shapes next to the nose.

5. Lastly, a mane is drawn around the lion. I used a black Sharpie to trace and color my drawing, and then my new favorite Crayola Twistables Slick Stix to color in. I found mine at Michael’s, but you can also get them online here. I really hope stores continue to stock these as they are perfect for getting an oil pastel look without all the mess.

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1. Give each student a lump of clay about the size of a small apple. Tell them that softening the clay is an important first step, and this is best done by squeezing it and spreading water on it for at least five minutes. After the clay is warm, they are to roll it into a smooth ball.

2. To make a pinch pot, they are to stick their thumb in the middle of the ball, and then pinch the sides until a bowl forms with walls that are about the thickness of a pancake.

3. On one side of the bowl, a small fold can be made and pinched together to gather extra clay to make the turkey head. On the opposite side, clay can be pinched a bit to make a curve of the tail. When the shape is complete, feathers can scratched in the sides to add some texture.

4. Fire the clay, paint with glaze, and fire again. A very cute addition to your Thanksgiving table!

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1. Give each student a piece of clay about the size of a small apple. Instruct them to remove a small piece for the stem and set aside. The rest of the clay is to be split into 2 sections.

2. After warming and softening the clay with their hands, each of the 2 sections needs to be turned into a ball and then into a smooth pinch pot. The goal is to have 2 bowls that roughly match each other in size.

3. Discuss how any time clay pieces are to be blended together, they need to be scored (scratched) and “puttied” together with slip (clay mud). Roughen up the edges of each bowl with a fork, wet with slip, and gently push the two bowls together. Use clay tool to blend together and hide seam.

4. A small stem is to be formed from the last piece of clay. It also gets scored and slipped on what is determined to be the top of the ball. Encourage extra blending on stem base as they are prone to fall off otherwise.

5. The students then hold the pumpkin in their hands and use a round tube, such as a jumbo-size pencil to push in ridges. If they rock the pencil from the stem to the bottom, rotate, and press again, they will form what look like the ridges of the pumpkin. Names may then be scored onto the bottom.

6. The next day, I had students draw lightly on the clay what they wanted their faces to look like. I kept it simple with only allowing circles, triangles or squares (no teeth!). It takes a sharp knife to cut out the faces, so I did it for them with an xacto knife.

7. When the clay is no longer cool to the touch, do a bisque firing with all the pumpkins. Have the students paint the pumpkins with glaze, and fire again.

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1. I drew examples of some typical bones on the board. They generally look like sticks, but have large bumps on the end. I gave students long pieces of paper and had them write their name lightly in pencil, using just stick letters.

2. The students can then turn those letters into little sections of bone as they see fit. Curved letters can be made from several short straight ones, or something that looks like a rib bone, which has just a rounded point on one side.

3. Trace all the pencil lines in marker and add shading by using cross-hatching to one side.

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1. Give the students a letter-size paper to make a practice drawing on. They should start by drawing large stick letters for their name, and then trace around those lines to make block letters. The inside stick letters may then be erased. Show the students how to draw one continuous line around the block letters, following the shapes somewhat as they go. “Bubbles” are drawn around the outside, some large and some small, and some may overlap each other. Lastly, the students are to draw swirls and curves inside each “bubble”.

2. Once the pencil drawing is complete, the students place a matching size piece of Yupo on top and trace all the lines with a black Sharpie. Once traced, the shapes may be colored in with lots of other Sharpie markers.

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