Clay Fossils

I have made fossils with grade ones before as part of a dinosaur themed unit. I do like the ones I had done previously with objects cast in plaster (see them HERE) However, they were quite tricky. Then I saw this simple but effective fossil idea from Gail at That Artist Woman. I had the students create a small flat disc from terracotta clay (like a biscuit or a cookie). We used plastic dinosaurs as well as plastic trees to make imprints in clay. After firing I had each child add a small amount of white paint using a sponge roller, just to bring out the texture details a little more.

The kids enjoyed pretending these were biscuits or cookies.

Plastic dinos? CHECK. How cool is my job?

Cardboard Dinosaur Sculptures

This is a fantastic idea I found on Artsonia from Mildred Helms Elementary U.S.A.

I made up two templates for this project, a basic oval shape for the body and a shape which would fold to become the legs and feet. Students traced the body shape onto white card and drew in the rest of the dinosaur. (We had a lot of dinosaur pictures to look at so they could choose different types of dinosaurs). They then traced either one or two sets of legs depending on the type of dinosaur they had chosen to do. 

 Students then painted their pieces in a chosen colour and experimented with various scrapers and stamps to make patterns in the paint for a textured look. Once dry, they cut out the pieces and repeated the painting on the back. 

I demonstrated how to fold the legs and feet and make small slots to put the sculpture together. I then used a glue gun to glue the legs in place and glued the feet to a stiff card base which they had decorated to represent the ground below.

Cardboard has to be my favourite medium for sculpture. I think these are just too cute for words.

Plaster Cast Fossils

For this project I had students bring a small textured object to their art lesson (i.e an interesting leaf, shell etc). I then gave each child a small disposable plastic bowl with some dry Plaster of Paris in the bottom and went from one child to the next adding the correct amount of water to the mixture. Each child stirred the plaster to get it smooth. Once it was the right consistency, the students needed to place their object lightly into the plaster so it was half in half out.

The next day I popped the plaster pieces from their bowls and carefully removed the embedded objects. I also sanded the edges of each plaster disc so it was smooth and round.







  

When the students came in they applied two coats of paint to their fossil to make it appear aged. They firstly applied a brown undercoat and when dry, a small amount of white paint was dabbed on over the top in a dry brush manner.