Clay Space Shuttles

In honor of tomorrow being the 50th anniversary of the first man on the moon, I thought I'd post this earlier than I had planned. With Willow's Art Show completed, I am now focusing on Houlton's show (April 28th). We have a space theme, to go with the 4th and 5th graders' concert, "Spaced Out!" Fourth graders made clay space shuttles to contribute to the show.

They started by rolling clay out and putting it around two of the individual egg holders of an egg carton. They added a bottom, and then made a pinch pot and put another individual egg carton in the pot. That one I had trimmed down to just the little cup part so it was a little smaller. The pinch pot was put on the end for the nose of the shuttle.

They added a piece of rolled out clay to seal up the back, and then added 1-3 thrusters, which are just circles of clay. Finally, they added wings, a hole in the bottom, and their names. I put an image of an American shuttle and the NASA symbol on the SmartBoard and gave them red, clear, blue, and black glazes. I told them they can make their shuttle look like an American one, but they didn't have to.

To add a little something extra, we will be adding fire coming out of the shuttle thrusters. I'm thinking of using the stiff plastic cellophane-like people wrap baskets in-to make the fire and glue it into the thrusters. I'll be sure to post the final projects, complete with fire.