New kiln lets fourth graders try out ceramics at Gaylord school

Paul Welitzkin, The Petoskey News-Review
·2 min read
Pictured (from left) are Laila Gunderson, 10, teacher Lori Thompson, and Eli Pereira, 10, in Thompson's ceramics class at the Gaylord Intermediate School. A grant from the Otsego Community Foundation and support from the school's parent teacher organization helped to acquire a kiln for the class.
Pictured (from left) are Laila Gunderson, 10, teacher Lori Thompson, and Eli Pereira, 10, in Thompson's ceramics class at the Gaylord Intermediate School. A grant from the Otsego Community Foundation and support from the school's parent teacher organization helped to acquire a kiln for the class.

GAYLORD — Students in Lori Thompson's fourth-grade class at the Gaylord Intermediate School are in the process of making lifelong memories right now thanks to a grant and generous parents.

Thompson's class is being introduced to ceramics using a new kiln that was purchased with an $8,000 grant from the Otsego Community Foundation and $5,000 from the school's parent teacher organization (PTO).

Students are currently making sculptures of animals using clay.

"You put the clay in the kiln and it fires it up to 2,000 degrees," said Thompson.

Many families tend to keep arts and craft projects from school long after the students have graduated.

"They will probably have this forever. You can ask adults if they ever did this and many will say they still have their projects from their class," Thompson said.

Ceramic objects are made by combining naturally occurring raw materials, such as clay, earthen minerals, and water, and shaping them into forms. Once shaped, the object is fired in a kiln at a high temperature. Kilns have been used for many years to turn objects made from clay into pottery, tiles and bricks.

An $8,000 grant from the Otsego Community Foundation and $5,000 raised by the Gaylord Intermediate School parent teacher organization resulted in the purchase of this kiln for a ceramics class.
An $8,000 grant from the Otsego Community Foundation and $5,000 raised by the Gaylord Intermediate School parent teacher organization resulted in the purchase of this kiln for a ceramics class.

Thompson said the students are forming the animals in clay using their hands and not a mold.

"They are learning techniques like coiling (forming the clay) and making slabs to create their sculpture," she said.

Thompson encourages the students to make their sculptures from one piece of clay because additional pieces could fall off in the process. However, some do add pieces using techniques like scoring, which involves adding hatch marks to attach a piece.

After the sculpture has been heated up in the kiln, the students place a glaze on it and it goes back into the kiln for additional baking and comes out as a ceramic.

"For most students it is the first time they are using real clay," Thompson said. "It can be soothing for a lot of people because clay is from the earth."

Typically, Thompson said sixth graders would make ceramics, but fourth graders were introduced to it this year to demonstrate the new kiln that replaced an older one that was broken.

"The students have really taken to this and it has inspired them to be creative," Thompson said. "They have a base and the students can put whatever animal they select. They can add any details they want. Sometimes it's very quiet (in the classroom) because they are concentrating so hard on the project."

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: New kiln lets fourth graders try out ceramics at Gaylord school