Pottery Dogs. Years 2 and 3

There are a lot of family dogs, village dogs, and stray dogs in Thailand. Children are familiar with seeing dogs around and about. When asked to model a dog, children usually make the expression rather “stiff” and movement is not often considered… the dog just stands there. This project is a fun one to do and helps younger students begin to gain in confidence to put “expression” into 3D modeling… in this case using clay. The teacher demonstrates and the children see the humorous results before trying it themselves. From one piece of soft clay a dog is quickly pulled and pushed into a dog shape…eyes and nose are added… and then the “dog” is spun round and thrown a little way up in the air. When it lands the body and the face can take on great expression. There is a lot of laughter. A few more tweaks like turning the head or angling the eyes or pulling the ears, and the results can say a lot about how dogs move and look. Better than trying to assemble them from separate pieces….head, legs, body, tail….which is often technically too hard for a younger student and creates frustration. With this process they know they have achieved something and are encouraged by it… ”hey, I’ve modeled a dog!”.