Grade: K-5th Grade

Teacher Name: Molly Abaya

Description and purpose of grant: This project will provide our elementary art students with the materials needed to explore clay and felting—two exciting new additions to our art program. With our school’s new kiln, students will be able to create and glaze real ceramic pieces, learning about form, texture, and the firing process. Felting will introduce them to the world of fiber arts, allowing them to transform wool into colorful sculptures and textiles. These hands-on experiences build creativity, fine motor skills, and confidence while expanding our art curriculum into new, three-dimensional mediums.

Implementation process: This project will benefit all of our elementary art students by expanding their creative experiences with age-appropriate, hands-on materials. Upper grades (4th and 5th) will explore clay, learning to build, sculpt, and glaze their own ceramic pieces using our new kiln—an exciting opportunity to work with professional art materials for the first time. All of the clay tools will be able to be re-used year after year! In the future we will just nned to purchase clay. Meanwhile, 2nd and 3rd graders will dive into the fiber art of felting, creating colorful wool sculptures and textiles that build fine motor skills and creativity. Together, these projects will enrich our art program and give students meaningful, lasting experiences in both traditional and contemporary art forms. After we have all of the tools we can re-use these year after year as well, only needing to replace wool roving. 

Items you plan to purchase with grant money From Trinity Ceramics:

Clay, and rolling pins to roll out the clay

From School Specialty:

Glazes, modeling tools, finishing touches tools and wire for cutting clay

From Amazon:

Drop cloth to protect the tables for clay, needle felting needles, foam blocks and wool roving for felting

In the event my grant is not fully funded, this is minimum amount I would need to get started on this project: $800