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Wildlife Clay Art

School: Kettle Falls Elementary School

City/State: Kettle Falls, WA

Grade(s): 4

Format(s): Short Essay, Model: Scientific, Visual arts

Subject(s): English Language Arts, Science and Technology, Visual Arts

Project Overview

Students studied wildlife from the Colville National Forest in an expedition in their home classroom. The final product of the expedition included writing a narrative fiction about one of the wildlife they studied.

Next, they took what they learned in their expedition a step farther to create a piece of artwork to go with their narrative. First, they looked at previous years work, created a criteria, and outlined the sequenceof draft steps. Using a photo as a guide, students drafted a colored pencil drawing, scratch art, and created a final product in clay. Between the colored pencil drawing and the scratch art students used a rubric, peer critique, and reflection to determine how they successfully met criteria and how they could improve to meet the criteria even more.

How This Project Can Be Useful

  • Unique example of an interdisciplinary project
  • Highlights a product with very strong aesthetic quality
  • Exemplifies the use of a common template for each entry (which adds consistency), while retaining students’ unique contributions.

Common Core State Standards

Standard Long Term Learning Target
W.4.3
  • I can write narrative text about real or imagined experiences or events.
W.4.4
  • I can produce writing that is appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
W.4.7
  • I can conduct a research project to become knowledgeable about a topic.
W.4.8
  • I can provide a list of sources I used to gather information.
W.4.9
  • I can choose evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection and research.

Additional Standards

  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 1.1.1 (line)
  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 1.1.2 (shape and form)
  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 1.1.3 (value)
  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 1.1.4 (texture)
  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 1.1.5 (space)
  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 1.1.6 (color)
  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 1.1.7 (proportion and contrast)
  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 1.2.1 (sketching/colored pencils, scratch art, clay)
  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 2.1.1 (creative process)
  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 3.2.1 (specific purpose)
  • Washington State Visual Art Standards: GLE 4.3.1 (visual art to wildlife science)
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