![\"IMG_6456](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/IMG_6456-Chako.jpg\")
<\/a>High heat will vitrify the students\u2019 ceramics, making their work glass-like and water resistant, Chakro explained. This is essential because the final sculpture will be placed in Seatack Elementary An Achievable Dream Academy\u2019s ocean-friendly garden in front of the school.<\/p>\nSeatack staff and students set up the new garden this fall in partnership with the VB Surfrider Foundation, and Seatack\u2019s gifted resource teacher Marie Culver knew it would be a work in progress.<\/p>\n
Chako volunteered her time to visit Seatack art classes several days last month to help them produce ceramic coral pieces that will form the base of a sculpture she calls \u201cOcean Dance.\u201d<\/p>\n The students\u2019 first step is to produce a clay circular tube from a tool called an extruder. Using all their might, students pushed down a lever to move clay through device, and Chako cut off clay tubes into sizes a little bit larger than the cardboard insert of a toilet paper roll.<\/p>\n Step two is for students to texture the clay while making sure not to crush the circular shape of the tube. Plastic buckets filled with a mix of natural and man-made objects provide students with options for texturing.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, there are gumballs, a necklace, a hammer with points, a starfish, a roller, a button, some shells,\u201d called out one student as she looked through the items in the bucket at her table.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you know that gumballs are not made of gum?\u201d asked another student. \u201cI learned that today.\u201d<\/p>\n One student limits her texturing to the dots left behind by wrapping a plastic-bead necklace around the clay and pressing gently.<\/p>\n The texturing process did have its challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to keep it in a circle. You have to keep your fingers or hand in it while you turn it around,\u201d said one student. A cardboard tube held inside the clay helps students maintain the shape of their designs.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to paint every part of the clay,\u201d advised Chako. \u201cIt\u2019s actually nice if some of the clay shows through.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the advice, students were determined to cover every inch of their coral with one hand holding a paintbrush and the other steadying the clay.<\/p>\n Fifth-graders Lanasia Sanderson and Dream Tate had their eyes on the same color.<\/p>\n \u201cBlue. That\u2019s my favorite color,\u201d said Sanderson.<\/p>\n Tate she also would use blue, and Sanderson gave her blessing with a smile. \u201cWell, since we\u2019re besties, I guess she can use it, too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cVerde,\u201d repeated Calderon when his classmate asked how to say green in Spanish.<\/p>\n The fifth-graders at the table practiced saying \u201canaranjado, amarillo, morado and azul\u201d as they painted their ceramics with the colors orange, yellow, purple and blue.<\/p>\n As students finish painting and clean up their work stations, Chako explained what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s so cool about that is that our school is a neighbor to the Virginia Aquarium and has a lot of partnerships with them,\u201d added Culver, noting that people associate lookdown fish with the aquarium\u2019s sculpture at its main entrance.<\/p>\n Seatack students and staff will unveil the completed sculpture in a garden celebration just before Earth Day in April.<\/p>\n And how will students be able to identify their coral piece in the \u201cOcean Dance\u201d sculpture once its on display?<\/p>\n Smith loves the authentic project in her art classes for many reasons.<\/p>\n \u201cI like the fact that it pulls the entire school together, and the kids get to see an artist other than me. They get to see a real working artist,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s also nice to have a project that really benefits the community. They don\u2019t keep it themselves \u2014 it\u2019s a gift. So it pulls out those intrinsic values.\u201d<\/p>\n What does she think the students will say when they see the final work of art?<\/p>\n \u201cI think they\u2019re minds are going to be blown,\u201d answered Smith, \u201cand they are going to be completely shocked because they are only making a little piece of it. Even I don\u2019t know what the final vision will be. We\u2019re excited to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n To learn more about Virginia Beach Education Foundation (VBEF) grants and how individuals, community organizations and businesses are supporting teaching and learning through the VBEF, visit <\/em>www.vbef.org<\/em><\/a> or contact VBEF coordinator Debbie Griffey at <\/em>debbie.griffey@vbschools.com<\/em><\/a>. The 2015-16 VBEF grant projects and grant underwriters are featured in a booklet available online <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Speaking to an art class of fifth-graders, local sculptor Debra Chako described the clay firing process in terms she thought they would better understand. \u201cIf you think about it, cookies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-connections","category-sustainable-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4712"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6427,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4712\/revisions\/6427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Culver applied for a Sustainability Impact Project grant from the Virginia Beach Education Foundation (VBEF) and was awarded funds in November to provide additional support to add to the garden. With the VBEF grant, underwritten by CH2M Hill and Virginia Beach Schools Federal Credit Union, Culver is able to purchase ocean-friendly garden plants and materials such as clay, glaze and rebar for the sculpture Chako will produce with help from Seatack students in grades three through five and their art teacher Maggie Smith.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s kind of magic if it\u2019s the first time you use it,\u201d said Chako of the extruder. \u201cI don\u2019t think many of the students have much experience with clay so watching them react to it is neat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>\u201cI used almost everything,\u201d said another student with pride.<\/p>\n<\/a>Step three appeared to be the favorite of most students \u2013 painting their creations.<\/p>\n<\/a>Around one table of students painting, an impromptu Spanish lesson broke out with the help of native speakers Anjel Calderon and Bryan Ubeda.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u201cI will place their pieces among five or seven vertical bars, maybe as high as 8 feet, to form coral,\u201d she said. \u201cThen I\u2019m going to put lookdown fish on top so it looks like they are swimming in a school. I will add a couple of other elements to give it variety.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>\u201cOne student wanted to know how he would know which was his,\u201d said Chako. \u201cI told him, \u2018Just like a necklace is made of beads and a single bead is one part of the necklace, you are all making one part of the sculpture.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n