Clay

Making pinch pots out of clay was a new adventure for me. The first step was to roll the clay into a ball and throw it at the table to get all the air bubbles out of it. Next, was the shaping of the pot which was done by pushing and pinching the clay to form the outside edges of the pot. Water was also very helpful to help seal some of the cracks in the paint. Next, we used some different tools to create the shape of the stem and leaf and pressed those together. The final step was to carve the seed shapes and paint the pots. 

One thing I would recommend in a future classroom is to let the clay dry before painting it because it was a lot of steps for one class and the white paint especially kept blending with the wet clay. I would also give students smaller brushes, as it was very difficult to paint the seeds with the bigger brushes we had. 

Extension: I would integrate this project with some more ELA standards by requiring students to write a paragraph/passage about their project. Some requirements of the writing project would be 1. what went well, 2. what was difficult, 3. what they will use their pinch pot for.