Mill Valley School District Art Department

Sculpture Curriculum Map

Ceramics/Sculpture Crafts/Photography
Mixed Media/Collage

Art Department Philosophy
Statement
Through a robust
studio-based art curriculum,
students in Mill Valley School
Studio Habits of Mind
District have opportunities to
explore a variety of art media
at every grade level.

Painting Printmaking
Drawing

Art Department Philosophy Statement

Mill Valley School District provides a robust studio-based art curriculum where students learn to
express personal ideas and feelings using their imagination, or observation. Students learn to
value originality, artistic freedom, and the art process.

The program places artistic expression at the center. Aesthetic values, art criticism, and art
history inspire and grow out of students' creative experiences. Students have opportunities to
make choices and cope with ambiguity and uncertainty as they exercise judgment in
solving artistic problems. Through the making of their own art, students invent, experiment,
discover, investigate, take risks, work through mistakes, and reflect. Students explore different
sources for inspiration: imagination, intuition, memory, and observation. They learn from each
other and they learn to value their creative process and product.
Studio Habits of Mind
 Sculpture Overview

Key Vocabulary Guiding Questions Big Ideas

Sculpture
Resources Connections
Related Museum Exhibits, Artists Studied, Childrens
Websites, Books, Images, Literature, Cultural, Historical,
Videos, Music Cross-Cultural

Understandings Exemplar Projects

Project Examples
By Grade Level By Grade Level
Sculpture Vocabulary

Abstract, additive, armature, assemblage, assemble, build, cardboard construction, ceramics,

clay, coil method, construct, environmental sculpture, figurative, form, glaze, installation, in the
round, join, kiln, model, monumental, pinch method, pottery, recycled material, relief, score,
sculpture, site-specific, slab, slab roller, slip, subtractive, three-dimensional, wire, wood

Sculpture Guiding Questions

What is sculpture?
How does an artist make a sculpture?
What materials and tools can be used to make a sculpture?
What techniques do artists use to create a sculpture?
How and where do artists get ideas to make a sculpture?
What are the unique qualities of a sculpture? Of three-dimensional art?

Sculpture Big Ideas

Sculpture is the creation of artistic objects in three dimensions, length, width, and height.
Ceramics is a kind of sculpture that involves using clay and glazes to create works of art.
Sculpture can be viewed in the round (viewed from all sides) or in relief (attached to a
background).
To sculpt is to make a form by carving, casting, or other shaping techniques.
Sculpture can be created using a variety of materials, tools, and techniques.
There are many ways of working with clay, such as slab modeling, and using pinch, coil,
additive, and subtractive methods.

Sculpture Resources

http://moca-ny.org
http://www.amoca.org
www.ceramicsmuseum.alfred.edu
www.deyoung.famsf.org
http://www.ceramicstoday.com/links/artistsworldwide.html
www.veniceclayartists.com/african-pottery
www.museumofafricanart.org/ceramics.html
www.asianart.org
www.mariajulianpottery.com
www.ceramics.org/learn-about-ceramics/history
www.gardinermuseum
www.themuseumofceramics.org
www.mma.org/explore/collection/departments
Sculpture Connections

Tina Allen Shiho Kanzaki

Robin Antar Anselm Keefe
Ruth Asawa Sadika Keskes
Ben Asawe Hara Kiyoshi
Banksy Beate Kuh
Elizabeth Berrien Carol Long
Chakaia Booker Maria Montoya Martinez
Louise Bourgeois Janet Macpherson
Mbongeni Buthelezi Chepage Makgato
Deborah Butterfield Henry Moore
Alexander Calder Louise Nevelson
Sokari Douglas Camp Jeff Nishinaka
Bruce Conner Isamu Noguchi
Helen Quintana Cordero Corinne Okada
Joseph Cornell Claes Oldenburg
Patrick Dougherty Ivan A. Panov
Jean DuBuffet Markoosie Papigatok
El Anatsui Noah Purifoy
Mary Frank Robert Rauschenberg
Alberto Giacometti Simon Rodia
Naum Gobo Auguste Rodin
Andy Goldsworthy Betye Saar
David Hammon Richard Serra
Barbara Hepworth Jen Stark
Damien Hirst Pascale Marthine Tayou
Emily Pangnerk Illuituk Andy Warhol
Jasper Johns Timothy Washington

Childrens Books:
When Clay Sings by Bryd Baylor
Storytellers and Other Figurative Pottery by Douglas Condon-Martin
Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
Alexander Calder: Meet the Artist by Patricia Geis
Sandys Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder by Tanya Lee Stone
Maria Montoya Martinez: Master Potter by Elsie Kreischer & Roberta Sinnock
Joseph Cornell: Secrets in a Box by Allison Baverstock
Children of Clay: A Family of Pueblo Potters by Rina Swentzell
DVD: Rivers and Tides (documentary about Andy Goldsworthy)
Sculpture Project Examples

Transitional Kindergarten: Clay Explorations

Kindergarten: Clay Masks
First grade: Clay Plates of Food
Second grade: Cardboard Assemblages
Third grade: Clay Storyteller Dolls
Fourth grade: Clay Dragons
Fifth grade: Environmental Installations
Sixth grade: Wire Insect Sculptures
Seventh grade: Clay with Found Objects
Eighth grade: Artist-Inspired Clay Teapots

Sculpture Understandings By Grade Level

Transitional Kindergarten Students

Experiment with sculptural materials

Create a three-dimensional form
Use a variety of clay tools to construct three-dimensional works
Engage in self-directed play with clay
Engage in self-directed creative making with sculpture materials
Share and talk about their sculptures

Kindergarten Students

Build upon prior skills and knowledge

Experiment with pinch, relief and/or slab techniques with clay
Use glazes
Create three-dimensional forms using sculptural processes
Engage in exploration and imaginative play with sculptural materials
Engage collaboratively in creative art making through sculpture
Explain the process of making sculpture while creating

First Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and knowledge

Use slab and modeling techniques with clay
Experiment with glazes
Use sculptural materials (clay, paper, and paper mache) to create form and texture in works of
art
Create a representational sculpture based on people, animals, or buildings
Explore uses of material and tools to create sculptures
Engage collaboratively in exploration and imaginative play with different sculptural materials
Use observation and investigation in preparation for making a sculpture
Use art vocabulary to describe choices while creating a sculpture
Second Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and knowledge

Use subtractive method of working with clay
Use additive techniques to join clay
Experiment with various materials, such as glazes, and tools to explore personal interests in a
sculpture
Brainstorm collaboratively multiple approaches to making a sculpture
Create a sculpture to explore personal interests, questions, and curiosity
Discuss and reflect with peers about choices made in creating a sculpture

Third Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and knowledge

Use a combination of coil and modeling techniques with clay
Create an imaginative clay sculpture based on an organic form
Create a personally satisfying sculpture using a variety of artistic processes and materials
Apply knowledge of available resources, tools, and technologies to investigate personal ideas
through the sculptural process
Elaborate visual information by adding details in a sculpture to enhance emerging meaning

Fourth Grade Students

Reinforce prior skills and knowledge

Create a sculpture using subtractive and additive methods of working with clay
Experiment with glazing techniques (e.g. layering and/or dripping)
Explore and and experiment with sculptural techniques and approaches
Brainstorm collaboratively to create a sculpture that is meaningful
Revise sculpture in progress on the basis of insights gained through peer discussion

Fifth Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and knowledge

Use clay and knowledge of ceramic techniques to create a large form
Experiment with glazes
Assemble a found object sculpture that reflects unity and harmony, and communicates a theme
Combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for a sculpture
Create artist statements using art vocabulary to describe personal choices in making a sculpture

Sixth Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and knowledge

Use slip and scoring as methods of construction
Use slip as surface decoration
Refine additive and subtractive methods of working with clay
Use a combination of materials (e.g. wire, recycled, wood, natural) to create a
three-dimensional form
Create an increasingly complex original sculpture reflecting personal choices and increased
technical skill
Demonstrate openness in trying new ideas, materials, methods and approaches in making a
sculpture
 Combine concepts collaboratively to generate innovative ideas for creating a sculpture
Investigate personally relevant content for creating a sculpture
Reflect on whether a personal sculpture conveys an intended meaning, and revise accordingly

Seventh Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and knowledge

Explore surface treatments using clay
Use a combination of materials (e.g. metal, clay, wood, wire, paper mache, fabric) to produce
more complicated three-dimensional forms
Interpret reality and fantasy in original three-dimensional works of art
Develop criteria to create a sculpture
Create a series of sculptures that express a personal statement demonstrating skill in applying
the elements of art and the principles of design
Reflect on and explain important information about personal sculpture in an artist statement

Eighth Grade Students

Build upon prior skills and knowledge

Combine methods of construction and surface treatments
Design and create a maquette for a three-dimensional sculpture
Design and create an expressive figurative sculpture
Experiment, innovate, and take risks to pursue ideas, forms, and meanings that emerge in the
process of making a sculpture
Document early stages of the creative process visually and/or verbally in making a sculpture
Shape an artistic investigation of an aspect of present day life collaboratively using sculpture as
practice
Apply relevant criteria to examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for a sculpture in process
 Kindergarten
Transitional Kindergarten First Grade
Clay Masks
Clay Exploration Clay Plates of Food

Second Grade Third Grade

Cardboard Assemblages Clay Storyteller Dolls

Exemplar
Sculpture Projects
By
Grade Level
Fourth Grade
Clay Dragons Fifth Grade
Environmental Installations

Seventh Grade
Sixth Grade Eighth Grade
Clay with Found Objects
Wire Insect Sculptures Artist-Inspired Clay Teapots

Goals/Key Understandings
- Understand clay is made from
mud
- Know that ceramics is the art
of making objects of clay
- Use clay in many ways to
make a variety of forms
Key Vocabulary
ceramics, clay, coil, form, glaze,
join, sculpture
Connections
When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor
Transitional Kindergarten Project
Clay Explorations
Motivating Questions
What is clay? How do artists use
clay? What kinds of objects do
they make with clay? What is glaze
and how do you use it?
Resources
Create sculptures with your child
at home using air-drying clay
Clay Play: The Natural Air Method
that Aligns with a Childs Growth
by Spramani Elaun
Visual Arts Standards
2.2 Demonstrate beginning skill
in the use of materials (such as
clay) to create works of art
2.7 Create a three-dimensional
form
Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft
Envision
Express
Assessment
- Teacher conversations with
students while working. Tell me
about your clay creation. What
techniques did you discover to
use with clay?
 Kindergarten Project
Clay Masks

Goals/Key Understandings
Motivating Questions
- Understand that masks are
Where and why do people
made by artists all over the
make masks? What features do Visual Arts Standards
world using different materials
all masks have in common?
- Discover that masks have
What materials and tools do 2.6 Use geometric shapes/forms
certain features in common
artists use when creating with in a work of art
representing a face
clay? What techniques do
- Make a mask using slab
artists use to make a clay mask?
construction, additive processes,
What is slab construction?
and a variety of techniques

Key Vocabulary
Studio Habits of Mind
additive processes, ball,
ceramics, coil, fire, kiln, mask,
Develop Craft
slab
Envision
Express

Resources
Connections
www.historyofmasks.net;
https://anthromuseum.missouri
Collection of masks from around
.edu/minigalleries/worldmasks/
the world from Folkart
intro.shtml
International
Assessment
- Teacher reflection with student:
How did you make your mask?
What features did you add to
your slab of clay? How is your
mask the same or different than
the folkart masks?

Goals/Key Understandings
- Shape clay into different forms
to resemble a variety of foods
- Add detail to clay forms
- Use texture and glaze to
embellish
Key Vocabulary
Clay slab, glaze, hand-building,
pinch, texture
Connections
Claes Oldenburg, Robin Antar,
Wayne Thiebaud, Pop Art
First Grade Project
Clay Plates of Food
Motivating Questions
How can you make different
forms with clay? What
techniques and tools can you
use to add texture?
Resources
Claes Oldenburg, Robin Antar,
Wayne Thiebaud, Pop Art
https://www.sfmoma.org/artist
/Wayne_Thiebaud
www.rantar.com
www.roadarch.com/mim/old.ht
ml
Visual Arts Standards
2.3 Demonstrate beginning skill
in the manipulation and use of
sculptural materials (clay, paper,
and paper mache) to create
form and texture in works of art
2.1 Use texture in
two-dimensional and
three-dimensional works of art
Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft
Envision
Express
Stretch and Explore
Assessment
- Teacher-student conversation:
How did you make your plate of
food and create texture? What
hand-building techniques did
you use to create your food?
- In-process observation of
students use of tools and
experimentation with
hand-building techniques to
create different forms and
textures

Goals/Key Understandings
- Discover ways to combine
cardboard materials to create a
three-dimensional form
- Create an
assemblage/sculpture using
recycled material
Key Vocabulary
assemblage, construct, found
object, negative space
Connections
- Nevelsons World by Jean
Lippman
- The Sculpture of Louise
Nevelson edited by Rapaport
- Beautiful Junk: A Story of Watts
Towers by Jon Madian
- Recycled, Re-seen: Folk Art from
the Global Scrap Heap edited by
Sheriff & Cerny
Second Grade Project
Cardboard Assemblages
Motivating Questions
How do you make a cardboard
construction? Why and how do
artists use recycled
material/found objects to make
art? What is an assemblage?
Resources
www.louisenevelsonfoundation.
org
www.roadarch.com/mim.old.ht
ml
www.rantar.com
www.lacma.org/art/exhibion/w
att-towers
Visual Arts Standards
1.3 Identify elements of art,
works of art, emphasizing color,
shape, form and space
2.1 Demonstrate beginning skill
in the use of basic tools and art-
making processes
Studio Habits of Mind
Envision
Understand Art World
Develop Craft
Engage and Persist
Assessment
- Teacher reflection with
student: What materials did you
choose to make your
assemblage? What challenges
did you have while creating your
sculpture?
 Third Grade Project
Clay Storyteller Dolls

Goals/Key Understandings
Motivating Questions
- Learn that clay storyteller dolls
Visual Arts Standards
are made for a variety of reasons
What is a storyteller doll? Why
by Native American people
and how do artists make them? 2.5 Create an imaginary clay
- Create a clay doll using additive
How do you form and join clay sculpture with an organic form
and subtractive techniques
to make a figurative sculpture?
- Use clay to form and join parts
of a figure together

Vocabulary
Studio Habits of Mind
Additive and subtractive
Develop Craft
techniques, coil, connect,
Express
figurative, join, pinch pots,
Understand Art World
pueblo, texture

Connections
Resources Assessment
- Helen Cordero And The
Storytellers Of The Cochiiti
https://www.brooklynmuseum. - Peer-to-peer assessment: How
Pueblo by Nancy Howard
org/opencollection/search?key did you make your storyteller
- The Pueblo Storytellers:
word=pueblo+storyteller doll? What techniques and tools
Development of a Figurative
did you use?
Ceramic Tradition by Barbara
Babcock

Goals/Key Understandings
- Discover that artist create
dragons in many ways using a
variety of art media
- Create an imaginary dragon
using multiple hand-building
techniques
- Layer glazes to make new
colors on clay
Key Vocabulary
Hollow, loop, model, slab roller,
wire and ribbon hand-building
tools, wooden modeling tools
Connections
Dragonology: The Complete Book
of Dragons by Ernest Drake;
Dracopedia The Great Dragons:
An Artist's Field Guide and
Drawing Journal by William
OConnor
Fourth Grade Project
Clay Dragons
Motivating Questions
Visual Arts Standards
How and why have artists
2.3 Use additive and subtractive
portrayed dragons in art? What
processes in making simple
media do artists use? How
sculptural forms
would you make a clay dragon?
Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft
Envision
Stretch and Explore
Resources
Assessment
www.kuriositas.com/2015/07/h
- Peer-to-peer reflection: What
ere-be-dragons-amazing-statues
techniques did you use? How
did you use glazes when you
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitio
painted your dragon? How did
ns/mythic-creatures/dragons-cr
you get your ideas for making
eatures-of-power/natural-histor
your dragon?
y-of-dragons/

Goals/Key Understandings
- Learn about artist Andy
Goldsworthy, who makes
site-specific sculpture in natural
settings, and his process
- Create an environmental
sculpture/installation
- Photograph to document a
sculpture
Key Vocabulary
environmental art, ephemeral,
installation, natural sculpture,
document, photography,
site-specific
Connections
A Collaboration with Nature by
Andy Goldsworthy
Fifth Grade Project
Environmental Installations
Motivating Questions
Who is Andy Goldsworthy, and
Visual Arts Standards
what kind of art does he create?
What is an environmental
2.7 Communicate values,
installation? What is the
opinions, or personal insights
meaning of ephemeral, and how
through an original work of art
does it relate to Goldsworthys
work? How does Goldsworthy
use photography?
Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft
Engage and Persist
Stretch and Explore
Reflect
Resources Assessment
www.morning-earth.org/ARTIST Peer-to-peer reflection: What
NATURALISTS/AN_Goldsworthy was your process in making this
piece? What did you learn about
DVD: Andy Goldsworthy Rivers this kind of art? Do you have
and Tides suggestions for your process and
or product?

Goals/Key Understandings
- Understand and identify the
different types of balance
(symmetrical, asymmetrical and
radial)
- Create a three-dimensional
wire insect that is symmetrical
- Use embellishments to add
detail in a sculpture
Key Vocabulary
asymmetrical, balance,
embellishments, pattern, radial,
symmetrical
Connections
Jonathan Chaillou
http:///www.jonathanchaillou.co
m/animalier.html
Alexander Calder
http://www.calder.org/work/by-
category/wire-sculpture
Sixth Grade Project
Wire Insect Sculpture
Motivating Questions
What is wire sculpture, and
what are the techniques artists
use to create one? What is the
difference between
symmetrical, asymmetrical and
radial balance? How do artists
create detail and pattern when
working with wire?
Resources
Luis Lopez: How to Make a
Dragonfly
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=fU4H6Bw6ju0
Aleshia Beadifulnights Beaded
Wire Spiders
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=xB7mJsH9q4I
Visual Arts Standards
1.4 Describe how balance is
effectively used in a work of art
(symmetrical, asymmetrical,
radial)
2.4 Create increasingly complex
original works of art reflecting
personal choices and increased
technical skill
Studio Habits of Mind
Engage and Persist
Envision
Stretch and Explore
Assessment
- In-class critique/grading rubric:
What kind of balance did you
use in your wire sculpture, and
why? How did you create your
pattern design for your insect?
What techniques and tools did
you use? What new ideas did
you learn? What SHoM habits
did you use in your processes?

Hand-Built Found Object Sculpture
Goals/Key Understandings
- Make a sculpture that
combines a clay creation with a
found object
- Choose glazes that help the
sculpture be unified
- Discover that there are many
ways that objects can relate to
each other in art (e.g. literal,
transformative)
Key Vocabulary
found object, funk art, literal,
transformation
Connections
Robert Arneson, Robert Brady,
Gary Dinnen, Arthur Gonzales,
Tony Natsoulas, Louise Nevelson,
William Wiley, Funk Artists,
Outsider Art
Seventh Grade Project
Motivating Questions
How can you creatively
incorporate a non-clay object
Visual Arts Standards
into a clay construction? How
can two objects, clay and found,
2.5 Interpret reality and fantasy
relate to each other?
in original two-dimensional and
three-dimensional works of art
Studio Habits of Mind
Develop Craft
Envision
Express
Understand Art World
Assessment
- In-process student-teacher
Resources
conversation: What decisions
have you made in creating your
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-
sculpture? What have you
terms/f/found-object
considered to relate the clay
creation to the found object?
What techniques did you use?
What are your next steps?

Goals/Key Understandings
- Take inspiration from an artist's
two-dimensional work and
transform that into a
three-dimensional sculpture
- Build a working vessel with clay
- Join clay pieces with slip and
scoring techniques
Key Vocabulary
inspiration, modern art,
contemporary art, score, slip,
functional, conceptual, theme
Connections
Jenny Holzer, David Hammons,
Robert Rauschenberg, Frida
Kahlo, Louise Nevelson, Anselm
Kiefer, Qian Zhangfa
Eighth Grade Project
Artist-Inspired Clay Teapots
Motivating Questions
What is the artist's role in
society? How do artists help
shape the evolution of modern
art? How is your art influenced
by observing the work of other
artists?
Resources
sfmoma.org, asianart.org
Visual Arts Standards
2.6 Design and create both
additive and subtractive
sculptures
Studio Habits of Mind
Engage and Persist
Stretch and Explore
Understand Art World
Assessment
- In-process student-teacher
discussion: How did you
incorporate the artist's style,
theme, or texture into your clay
teapot? How did you use slip
and scoring techniques? What
challenges did you encounter,
and how did you solve them?
- In-class critique; grading rubric