Our principal had the nicest thing to say about this artwork. I was so proud of the work. The kids had patience with the process and that meant a lot!
I was lucky enough to do a project with my daughters 6th grade class this year. Planning for the project started in September of 2011. It began as an idea to do a permanent installation – on the stairs – on the side of the stairs – behind the stairs – on the planters outside the school … then it was a no go on permanent and huge (thank you stars). Then it moved around from mosaic tiles that the kids would make to pre-made tiles they would paint – to handmade ceramic tiles with glass surround – to round foot imprint tiles – to square foot imprints. (Thank you Pottery Making Illustrated!)
Each student was asked to step on a piece of clay, a square was cut from the impression. To save fabulous amounts of time, the pieces were glazed while the clay was green. ROYGBIV is a fantastically simple color scheme – so we went with that.
The tiles were fired, glued with liquid nails on to a piece of plywood that was first painted white; then the whole piece was taken to Ben Franklin who took such good care of it and framed it so beautifully! My dear, awesome friend Buck Darrell took this amazing photo for posterity. He’s a rockstar (single too!)
You’d think 169 tiles would make a huge composition, but the actual artwork is 25″x24″. It’s heavy, but manageable. I love it.
i-heart-art.org 
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what size square are these tiles?
They were one inch squares. The kids got a ball of clay to step on and the. I took a piece of cardstocck with a 1” square cut out of it. (It was a fraction lager to accccoubt for clay and kiln shrinkage)
With that template, I used a needle to slice the clay into squares.
I wish I had pictures to send of the process! Feel free to shoot any other questions you have.