As a fundraiser for flood victims in Thailand, I got to help organize a K-12 ceramics project this fall. Students were encouraged to donate 10,000won (approximately $9 with the current exchange rate) for the opportunity to paint a rice bowl. We then fired the bowls and gave them back to the kids, while at the same time donating the money to the Red Cross. All in all, we were able to raise 4.8 million won for Thailand!

Tons of 6th graders signed up to paint bowls. I had nearly 60 of them in my room at lunch one day! Luckily I had some excellent high school volunteers to help out. The kids had a really good time painting and I was really proud of how helpful my high schoolers were.

8th grade participation started out slow, but the homeroom teachers did a great job promoting how cool the bowls were and some kids came back several lunch periods in a row to paint extra bowls.

The teachers participated too, spending an after school session in my room painting bowls. It was a fun way for the staff to get together and create some art for a good cause.

I have fired the kiln what feels like a hundred times in the last month! This is just a small portion of the bowls kids painted. These are all covered in clear glaze and ready to go in the kiln. I had lots of helpful high school students to dip bowls in clear glaze and clean up the bottoms before firing.

Ceramics is always an experiment. Some bowls turned out really beautiful, while others were not quite what the students expected. I think everyone could agree though, that it was fun to participate and to know that their money was going to a good cause.