Ceramic Animal Heads–8th Grade Art Lesson

When student-teaching, I was asked by my cooperating teacher if I had any ideas for a new ceramics project for her eighth-graders: she’d been doing hers for quite some time and wanted something new. I proposed an idea for teaching a lesson about Egyptian art history and we both loved it! In this project, students learn about Egyptian mythology, animal symbology from cultures around the world, and personal symbolism all wrapped up into one neat little lesson.

Now I usually have a pretty fun time making presentations for my lessons, but doing the research for this project sent me down rabbithole after rabbithole–I genuinely had to reign myself in from going overboard! That being said, all of my research links and fun articles I read are in the speakers notes of my presentation. You can view the presentation and use it in your own classroom here! I also have my students use some of these links for their own research when learning about folklore from around the world. They will use these tools to choose an animal they feel represents themselves.

Reference pictures are always important in art, but especially so when it comes to sculpture. You can’t build something by just looking at one photo: you need to be able to see it from every single angle. With a whole classroom of students choosing different animals, the hunt for several quality reference photos for each student sounds like a complete nightmare. Luckily, I somehow stumbled upon this tool and struck gold.

This site is an independently-run stock photo reference for different animal heads. If you rotate the 3D model of the skull on the left and click search, you will be presented with several photos of your animal from that angle! What a miracle! Since the tool was built by only one or two people, it can be a bit buggy at times, and not every animal is available (but don’t worry–the site is completely safe to use!). However, I think that it’s completely invaluable as a teaching resource, and I plan on keeping it close for future projects.

Above is a tutorial I made for this project. It’s a bit longer than I usually try to have my videos, but the students can either watch along or pause where they need a break. I chose a fox because the shapes and placements of features I use are in the same ballpark as a lot of mammals that students could choose. Below are some student examples!