Experiments in Clay, Part Two

Alright, let me tell you about "experiments, part one." It has dragged on and on. When I made the windchimes with my students last fall, it was the first time I'd done clay with my students, and I didn't give myself enough time (I should have scheduled doubles with them but I wasn't sure if they would really welcome it or not). I didn't adequately prepare them for using clay. The kiln wasn't working, so it was only two weeks ago that the pieces got fired, and there have been shifts in numbers since then. In short, it was a catastrophe. I was NOT looking forward to "experiments, part two," but it's hardly fair to do clay with year one and not year two. So here I am, starting my second clay unit - I just worked with the first class, and it went surprisingly smoothly. I got a number of good student inquiries from the lesson, one of which I think I'll actually build into the unit ("How do you make clay?"), and they kids really did a good job of the basic learning engagements we did today - making a ball, a cookie or pancake, a snake, and a snail. I have no idea what I'll actually have them make, but I'm sort of okay with it at this point - after the way things sort of came together on their own through the last experiment, I feel a little more secure with planning a bit more open-endedly.