Clay Slab Ornaments

           This is a project that I plan to definitely keep doing in the future. In 1st and Kindergarten we finally got to use clay! Which all of the students ask me about all year long - all of them love the days that we can work with clay. So I figured making something for the holidays that could be a keepsake for families would be perfect.
           I ended up picking up and ordering a bunch of cookie cutters from Walmart and Amazon. then I showed my classes how I cut slabs, which are thin pieces of clay and then how they can press their cookie cutters into the slabs to cut out their ornaments. It was a fun and easy project that looks good overall when it is finished. It's really a no-fail project. Which we need from time to time, especially younger grades,
          For the project to be complete we use 3 layers of glaze on the ornaments. Glaze is pottery paint. This took a second class period. Then the 3rd class period of this project I used string to tie up ornaments and let kids make holiday cards. The string and wrapping and putting ornaments in bags took  . . . well, FORVER - hours. But it was worth it and of course I was doing this for about 200 kids - since I have a whole school. But if you are quick and do this while they are making cards or don't have a big group it is different. You could also just have them color right on their bags or print something to color and cut out and glue to the bags. These are ideas for the future.

        Also - one important thing to remember is to make sure to put a hole at the top of each ornament when kids are done for string and to make sure they use a pencil to write their name and possibly the year on the back. Remind kids to not paint the hole or else you could have an issue and have to use hot glue.

Here are some finished results!