Pottery

For this art lesson, we used clay to create pots. They introduced the students to pottery, with a slight background. After, we began working with the clay kneading it and lightly throwing it on the tables. Once the clay was worked and checked for no air bubbles we began making the pot. We were asked to set aside a small piece of clay for the bottom of our pot. So we smoothed a piece about the size of our thumb and not very thick. It got placed into a baggie until the coil process would begin.We then split our clay into two piece, so it was easier to work with and rolled it out into a long coil or tube. Once we felt it was about the thinkness we wanted, we placed knotches in the coil and also on the bottom piece that we had put away. These knotches helped interlock the two piece together, so the pot is stable. We continued this process until the coil was used up and repeated the process with the last piece of clay. After we finished, we were to engrave or paint a symbol onto our pots. I made a heart for love and family. I also made a cross to symbolize my faith. Once it was painted, the project was complete.
I think a great additional lesson to this project would be to talk more about life symbol and our differnt cultures. I think that the students could give a short speech about their pots and the meaning behind the symbols on their pots. They could also write a one page story about the important aspects of their lives and share them with the class, so they may get a better understanding of one another and their differing cultures.