Getting Creative with Clay

In this lesson that I taught with Danielle Weisz, students learned about how different cultures, like the Hopi in Southwest America, use pottery in their everyday lives.  To begin this lesson, we showed a short clip on the Hopis that demonstrated how one woman creates her clay pots, using the clay from the area she lives.  Next, we distributed clay to each student and started by showing them how to knead the clay, to ensure that there are no air bubbles.  Once this step was complete, students were told to use their hands to roll their clay into a ball.  Next, students were able to begin forming their pinch pots; first by pressing one thumb into the center of the ball, followed by two thumbs, and continued by pinch the clay down and out to make the pot.  It was important not to make the sides of the pit too thin, along with the bottom.  Students were allowed to get creative in the shape they made their pots, and some students chose to make their pots round, square, or even wavy on top.  

In order to remove any lines or fingerprints, water was used to smooth the clay.  To do this, students dipped their fingers in water and applied this to the clay, sliding their fingers across the piece to smooth it.  The next step was to do any carvings the students wanted to do.  Students had the choice to either carve symbols into their pots or to paint the symbols on.  These symbols needed to mean something to the students, or represent their life in some way.  

In my white pot, I used markers to create my symbols.  These symbols included an apple, a tent, sun, and a tree to show my desire to be a teacher and my love for the outdoors.  

An extension activity that could be done with pinch pots is to have students create these at the beginning of the year.  Students could be required to have a certain amount of symbols on their pots that could show what they did on their summer break.  This activity would help the teacher learn about their students, as well as allow the students to be creative and share their story in a unique way.  

To showcase our students' projects, we used a display case.  Because shelves weren't available to use, we wrapped two shoe boxes with different colored paper to place pots on.  The students' projects were all very colorful, so we decided to use bright colors in the paper we used and the lettering in our project name.