NEWARK On November 14th, Rachel Hawver’s second graders at Lincoln School learned from 15 Pottery and Advanced Potter students from Katy Broach’s classes at Newark High School how to use special knives to mostly “draw” scenes featuring turkeys and a few other creatures as imagination and time allowed _ in circular clay discs.
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A week later, Broach and three of her students, juniors Isabel Correa and Jazzlynn McDaniel and senior Gracie Bennett came to Hawver’s class armed with the now kiln-fired, ceramic plaques, paint and paint brushes to help the second graders complete their Thanksgiving holiday creations by painting them.
“Everybody excited to paint some turkeys,” Broach asked the second graders who eagerly chimed “Yes!”
After carefully instructing how the project would proceed without students getting paint on the worktables, themselves or others, Broach and her students handed out their clay creations, rectangular Styrofoam trays on which the students would paint them, brushes and finally paint dabs in colors of each student’s choosing.
While Hawver’s students painted, Correa, McDaniel and Bennett worked the room helping with technique and answering questions as needed.
As Broach, who also teaches Studio Art at NHS watched, she explained she and Hawver served only as facilitators to make the collaborative project possible, but it was the pottery students both weeks who instructed the second graders.
“I’m very proud of my students and their willingness of participate,” Broach said. “I know they get as much enjoyment out of this as the second graders.”
This was the second time Hawver and Broach’s students had collaborated on a project, making colorful clay hearts as gifts for the second graders’ moms.
Having previously collaborated when they both worked in the Clyde-Savannah School District before becoming employed as teachers in the Newark Central School District, both Hawver and Broach said these interactions provide a valuable and rewarding experience for both young and older students and builds community and positive relationships between them.
The art teacher also credited the work of Courtney Dentel, Perkins and Lincoln School art teacher and the NCSD Visual and Media Art leader, for acquainting the elementary students with some basic art terminology, skills and studio decorum.
Broach also encourages students to be imaginative and “not so rigid” when it comes to artwork and not only color, if you will, outside the lines “but make their own lines.
As one example, she noted second grader Nora Miller not only drew a turkey in clay at NHS Nov. 14th but was helped by McDaniel whom she said is great at pottery making to fashion one out of clay.
Hawver’s students gave the artful collaboration a hearty thumbs up.
“I liked that we got to make turkeys and other things for our families,’’ said Niya Phillips.
“I liked making a turkey rock star and a cat with sunglasses,’’ Ashton Carlson said.
“I liked that we got to make shapes with knives,’’ said Daisy Bouwens.
“My second-grade students greatly benefit from the collaboration with the pottery students, as it not only sparks their creativity, but also gives them something to look forward to as they eventually move into High School,” Hawver said. “They get to see firsthand the skills and passion older students bring to their work, and it inspires them. What's even more
rewarding is that past students still talk about how much they loved the experience and often say they wish they could do it again. It's a special bond that stays with them.”