Sixth-grade students make Greek pottery in the ancient tradition

As part of the curriculum, sixth-grade students at Crispell Middle School study ancient cultures. That includes Tara Bruyn’s art class, which is now studying Greek pottery.

A sixth-grade girl with long blonde hair in a ponytail, wearing a multi-colored apron, uses a knife on the clay she is shaping into a cup.

The students will be working on their pottery over the next few weeks. Ms. Bruyn explained that the clay dries to an orange color and they can glaze it either with clear or black glaze. That’s what most of the ancient Greek pottery looked like.

Two small pieces of pottery. They are orange with black stripes and markings.

The students are making cups and bowls. They each received their ball of clay and started to visualize their project. They rolled out their clay – the ideal thickness is a quarter inch – and started to shape their project.

A sixth-grade girl with long brown hair in a ponytail, wearing a blue smock and blue mask, looks into a cup she is making out of clay.

Close up photo of hands molding pottery clay.

Their final projects will sit on the shelf for two weeks to dry. Then the pottery goes into the kiln for the first firing; the students glaze them and then it’s off to the kiln again for the final firing, which heats and hardens them into usable pieces of pottery.

A middle-school age boy, with short light hair and wearing a camouflage Nike sweatshirt and green mask, molds clay into a bowl.

A girl with shoulder-length dark hair, wearing a pink shirt and mask and multicolored apron, rolls her orange clay on a table.

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Sixth-grade students make Greek pottery in the ancient tradition