Vitrigraph: Gravity and Hot Glass

Have you ever seen vitrigraph glass? Hot about a pot melt? Similar techniques for handling melted glass. Basically glass is placed in a terra cotta flower pot ( german made so it can handle high temperatures) that has a hole in the bottom, placed in a kiln, raised up to allow the glass to flow through the hole once it reaches the proper temperature. With a pot melt there’s a mold or kiln shelf under the raised pot to catch the glass as it flows out. For vitrigraph the kiln must be raised up rather high to allow the glass to almost drip out of the kiln. The kiln used for this must have no bottom. It’s placed on kiln shelves that have been separated enough for the glass to pass by. I’ve seen the kilns raised up with a forklift. Also on a scaffolding unit. One of my glass buddies, Larry Cunningham has come up with a unit that attaches to the wall so you can almost do this at home. HIs unit is the Turbo Lift.

leigh-larry

I’ve been fortunate enough to participate with Larry and my other glass buddy, Leigh Adams in a class we like to call “Extreme Vitrigraph”. When Leigh and Larr do it it’s called “Dancing with Glass’, when I’m there it’s Extreme…we add my torches to the mix to embellish the pieces that are pulled from the kiln. Check out this web site, www.glass-fusing-made-easy.com to get a bit more insight in the process. I’ll talk with Larry in a future blog to have him explain his vitirgraph kiln. In the meantime enjoy the dance with glass. Check it out with this video of the Turbo Lift, his vitrigraph kiln.

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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