June 22-26: Ancient Civilizations, ages 10-12 and 6-9

Day 1

Assyrian tablets- Students made up an encrypted language, like Assyrian story telling tablets. The project began with students rolling out their own slabs, cutting the shape, then writing a secret message in their imagined language. Once the slabs dried, students underglazed their tablets and scratched back into the letters.
African masks- Students began by rolling out their own slabs. Then the learned how to scratch and attach as they added facial features. More decoration was carved in and stamped onto the masks with bisque stamps.

Press bowls- Students created ancient pottery using bisques bowls for molds. They practiced compressing the clay and scratching and attaching.

Day 2

South American hollow animals- Students learned to build on an armature made from newspaper balls using slabs and pinched forms. They made animal sculptures based off of South American animal sculptures and vessels.

Egyptian canopic jars- Using slabs, students created a jar and lid. Then the students created animal heads of their choice, which was scratch and attached to the lid.

Sarcophagus and stories- Students cut slabs using paper patterns and created boxes, or miniature sarcophagi, which they then underglazed or carved designs about themselves onto the sides. Then they wrote a story about some one discovering their sarcophagi in the future.

Day 4

Students worked on underglazing and glazing their work this day. They made a set Egyptian senet pieces from clay, which required them to think about repetition of form, and underglazed them. They also underglazed and glazed Egyptian cat and Chinese dragon sculptures made the previous day.

Combo animals- Students created a hybrid of two animals and learned how to build hollow using newspaper to hold the form.

Greek paper vessels- Using a balloon as an armature, students covered the balloon with paper mache and painted it in bright colors.

Day 5

Japanese Bamboo pens- Using ink and actual bamboo pens, students practiced their mark making skills
Egyptian senet- Students made game boards and wrote down the rules for the game.