Southwest Licking School System

Penguins help Middle School students explore art.

Watkins Middle School library has been temporarily transformed into an Antarctic ice floe, complete with ceramic penguins and paper-mache boulders created by the 7th and 8th grade students in Mrs. Sharon Casteel-Miller's art class.

"The goal is to explore the material, to work with it and learn to use it to create something that they have envisioned," Casteel-Miller said. "And when they run into problems, they have to figure out a way to fix it."

The students spent weeks studying animals in art. Penguins were chosen as the animal to create in a three-dimensional medium.

First, the students were asked to draw penguins. Then, after learning about how to work in clay, each student made his or her own penguin. The full-size penguins contained additional personalized details, including touches of color and individual poses.

The boulders were created as a group project, with the students working together to create a realistic-looking chunk of ice and rock out of paper-mache.

"My classes focus on three-dimensional art," Castell-Miller said.

The students will work with glass next.