The three hand-building skills cup is my introduction assignments for my high school ceramics classes. This assignment uses all three hand-building skills (pinch, coil, and slabs) to make a functional cup. This is a great way to kick off the school year and introduce students to clay. Students get the challenge of learning these new skills and end up with a functional piece of ceramics right from the first lesson.  I prefer this assignment over giving each hand-building skill separately,  students will build confidence more quickly, they will improve on these skills throughout the school year and I can give more challenging assignments using this skills earlier.  Below is an instructional video I made about this assignment. A future post will include two different ways you could decorate the surface.