Clay Through the Ages – Introductory Videos for Teachers

The pack starts with a short introduction video to the Three Muses, the Digital Teachers pack and some fun facts about clay.

The second and third videos are instructional videos showing you how to make slip in your classroom, and then to score clay and add slip to attach two pieces of wet clay together so that they are completely bonded when the clay dries. 

The instructional videos are designed to be watched before beginning any of the lessons, as these will help you to prepare what you need before starting!

Instructional Videos

Clay Through the Ages Lesson Plan 4: A Mexican Tree of Life sculpture from Limerick City Gallery of Art

Clay Through the Ages Lesson Plan 1: A Bronze Age food vessel from the Hunt Museum

The Three Muses Clay Through the Ages Archeology game

Use your archeological skills to put the broken food vessel back together as quickly as possible!

Three Muses Clay Through the Ages Archeology game

Clay Through the Ages online game – Truffles the Treasure Hunting Piggy

Truffles the Treasure Hunting Piggy

Below is Truffles the Treasure Hunting Piggy. Your pupils will enjoy Truffles as a fun and educational complement to their learning from the above lesson plans, however this game can also be used as a stand-alone resource.

About Truffles

Help Truffles, the treasure hunting piggy, on a journey through Limerick City! Each level you complete will unlock a ceramic treasure from one of the Three Muses: The Hunt Museum, Limerick Museum and Limerick City Gallery of Art!

The layout of the old city of Limerick that Truffles navigates through is inspired by an illustration of Limerick from 1578 in the Limerick Museum Collection.

The colour palette for Truffles and the city was taken from a selection of watercolour paintings in the Permanent Collection of the Limerick City Gallery of Art.

Truffles our main character is inspired by Limerick’s ‘Pigtown’ food heritage.

The patrolling diver ‘guards’ are inspired by the diving suit in the Limerick Museum Collection.

The sweets that Truffles collects on her way to find the keys are inspired by the shapes of sweet moulds from Limerick sweet production, also on display in the Limerick Museum.

Look closely and you will see King John’s Castle, the river Shannon, the windmill from Windmill Street, and St. Mary’s cathedral. Look ever closer and you will see a Pike splashing in the Shannon. There are a number of stuffed fish in the Limerick Museum.

If you play the game with the sound on you will hear Truffles speaking, she speaks in Limerick slang! What can you hear her say?

Listen carefully – do you hear the Bells of St. Mary’s  Cathedral?

The objects and artefacts being hunted by Truffles are:

Tree of Life by Tiburcio Soteno from the Limerick City Gallery of Art Permanent Collection.

Play Truffles Online Game Now

To play, use Arrow keys, WASD, or D-Pad depending on your device.

Please click here to open game full page and to install on mobile or tablet.

How to install Truffles: Clay Through The Ages on your Mobile or Tablet:

  1. Use the link “click here,” to open the game on full page
  2. In your browser press the “Options menu”
  3. On Chrome browser click, “Add to Home screen.” If you’re using Firefox browser, press “Install.”
  4. Go back to your “Home Screen,” press on the piggy icon and play!

How to install Truffles: if you're using an iPhone or iPad:

  1. Use the link “click here,” to open the game on full page
  2. In your browser press the “Share option”
  3. Then choose the option, “Add to Home screen”
  4. Go back to your “Home Screen,” press on the piggy icon and play!

Clay Though the Ages Lesson Plan 3: A porcelain crest-ware pig from the Limerick Museum

Collection Protection

Collection Protection: Primary School students will learn how materials (artefacts/objects) in the Hunt Museum’s Permanent Collection decay and degrade over time. They will also learn about the science of preserving them for the future.

  • Resource 1 is designed for in-class presentation. Students will be introduced to objects in the Hunt Museum’s Permanent Collection. They will be taught how to categorise these objects as organic or inorganic, based on their materials. 
  • Resource 2 is designed to be printed out and used as a hard copy for students. Through a series of practical experiments, students will explore how some of the materials in the Hunt Museum Permanent Collections erode.
  • Resource 3 is a presentation introducing students to methods of preservation and restoration carried out in the Hunt Museum

Science

  • Energy and forces
  • Materials

Visual Art

  • Strand: Painting and colour

Geography

  • Natural Environments
  • Rocks and soils
  • Weather, Climate, and Atmosphere