Painting the Animals

Last week, we created animals from Sculpey clay. Mrs. Black baked them sometime before today and had them ready at the classroom. Unfortunately, some of the animals fell apart, or broke. This was upsetting to the students whose animals broke, but I was able to let them know that we would glue the pieces together after they painted them. Mrs. Black is going to have some glue available for me next week so that I can take care of the gluing.
Mrs. Black had a meeting to attend today, so there was a substitute teacher there to assist me as I taught today's lesson on painting our clay animals. The materials that we would be using were on a table for me. It was also then that I saw the animals and how some of them were broken.
I arrived a little early so that I could arrange and organize the materials we would need and make sure that everything was prepared so that the students could paint and not make a mess.
I first cut large squares of butcher paper to cover the student's desks to help keep them from getting paint on them. The butcher paper was also used as a place to put their paint that they would be using. I also got a paper towel for each student that they would use to wipe off their brush and hands as they painted. I organized the paint brushes, setting aside any that were inferior so that the students could all have a nice brush to paint with.
I then worked on grouping the animals, finding all of the pieces that belonged to each animal if it was broken, so that they students would be able to come up and retrieve their animal in an orderly fashion once the art lesson was about to begin.
All of this was done while the students were working with the substitute on other class work. At 9:45, I began the lesson.
I began by explaining the situation concerning some of the animals and the proposed solution. I then explained that since we were going to be working with paints, they needed to be careful and stay on task. I then went into detail about some rules and procedures. Once everyone was aware of the rules and agreed to behave themselves, I began to distribute materials. I had the students come up in small groups to receive their butcher paper, paper towel, and paint brush. Once everyone had those materials, I then moved on to handing out their animals. Again, I had them come up in small groups and pick up their animals. Those that were broken, I gave them all of the pieces and let them know that we would glue them later.
After all of the materials were distributed, I went around to each table and gave them a small amount of the paint they would need for their animals. I would pour small pools of the colors they wanted and move on to the next tables, this way the students weren't making a mess, and since the number of paint tubes was limited, everyone got the color they wanted without any arguments.
After that, it was just a matter of walking around the room and helping where needed. Some students wanted colors that we didn't have, like purple. I was able to teach them about mixing colors like red and blue to make purple. I also showed them that they could make a color lighter by adding some white.
As the students started to finish up, I had them place their animals on a table with paper towels to dry. They then washed their hands and threw away their butcher paper. For those that finished, I gave them some paper so that they could start thinking about what they wanted to make their box look like for when they painted those next week. The box will serve as a habitat for the animals and also a display case, like a diorama.
The students had a lot of fun. There was an issue of space though. It was really crowded as they were working at their desks. I think that next time I will have them spread out their desks more so that they can move a little easier as they get supplies and clean up.
I had forgotten to explain the procedure for cleaning up and what they should do when they were done at the beginning of the art hour. Luckily, using the hand clapping system that Mrs. Black has in place to get their attention, I was able to instruct them on those points during the hour.
There were some students that accidentally got their arms in their paint, but I had told them to roll up their sleeves and be careful, so when that did happen, it just got on their arm and I was able to give them some paper towels to clean up with.
Cleaning up went very well. The students washed their hands in the bathroom and put their soiled paper towels and butcher paper in the trash.
The students enjoyed painting and had a lot of fun finishing their animals. They are excited to paint their boxes next week and have a place for their animal to live. It should be another great day next week.