Make your own cereal bowl

In this lesson for kindergarten, students will learn that the art of creating functional pieces of pottery in North America first began over 4000 years ago in North Carolina. Students will learn where clay comes from and will create their own pottery pieces.

A lesson plan for grade K Visual Arts Education

By Eileen Palamountain

Learn more

• Southeastern Prehistory: Woodland Period This website from the National Parks Services provides information on very early Indian American pottery findings.
• Carolina Clay Connection I have ordered clay and slips from this company in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Catawba Indian Pottery A website about Catawba Indian pottery with links to Catawba Indian history and news.
• Clayhound A website with links to traditional potters from all over North America, including the Woodland tribes.

Related pages

• Intrigue of the Past: Teach your students about North Carolina's fascinating past. This edition contains lesson plans about the fundamental concepts, processes, and issues of archaeology, as well as essays for the teacher with detailed information about four periods in North Carolina's ancient history.
• Crafting North Carolina: A Hands on Exploration of North Carolina's Hand-made Heritage: North Carolina's geography, history, and resources brought to life through the crafts of the state.
• Becoming one with clay: Pinch pots: This lesson will provide students with an initial, successful experience with clay. They will begin with a small, palm-size piece of soft clay, mold it into a ball, and then create a small rounded pot.

Related topics

• Learn more about American Indians, North Carolina, arts, ceramics, clay, pinch pots, and pottery.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• Learn that some art is created to serve a functional purpose
• Learn that some pieces of art can be machine-made (man-made), while some can be handmade
• Learn that human creative expression has happened in all times and by all cultures

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

This lesson can take up to three 45-minute periods.

Materials/Resources

• red clay
• natural objects such as sticks, leaves, stones (to press into clay for decoration)
• access to kiln for firing
• paper or burlap to cover tables
• small cups of water (to moisten fingers if clay starts to dry too early)
• Optional: Children and Clay by Cathy Weissman Topal is an excellent resource for teachers interested in doing more clay work with children.

Pre-activities

1. With this age group it is fun to ask students to think about what they had for breakfast.
   • What was their breakfast was served on or in?
   • Was it a glass, paper, plastic, ceramic bowl or plate?
   • Where did these dishes come from or how were these serving dishes created?
   • Did the dishes used by the students have designs or decorations on them?
   • What did the designs look like?
2. Allow students to look at images of dishes (functional pieces) from earlier time periods. Ask the students to guess what materials were used to create the dishes. If anyone suggests clay, ask students where they think clay comes from.
3. If it is possible try to dig for clay at your school site!

Activities

Session one

1. Review: Ask students where clay comes from? Review how clay was used by early North Carolina Indian Americans to make functional pieces of art.
2. Discuss how to handle clay properly (do not drop it on the floor or throw it in the air).
3. Show students how to roll clay into a sphere.
4. Show students how to use their thumbs to create an opening in clay sphere. Pinch outside walls with fingers to widen the opening.
5. Use collected natural objects to press pattern into surface of the bowl.
6. Allow pieces to dry for several days before firing in kiln.

Session two

1. Allow students to look at the fired pieces of pottery. Use the following questions for discussion.
   • What changes have taken place?
   • What caused the changes to take place?
   • We used a kiln to fire our pieces, but long ago people how would people have fired their pieces? (in a fire pit or mound)
2. Compare and contrast a variety of functional pieces and discuss the materials they are made from. (paper, plastic, ceramic, glass, wood, metal) Are any hand made? Are any of the pieces man-made?

Tell students the reason we know pottery was created by man over 4000 years ago is because scientists (archaeologists) found pieces of ceramic shard left by Indian Americans. Ask students why didn’t they find some of the other types of materials used today? (Humans hadn’t learned about the use of metal, glass, or paper for those purposes.) Why do you think archaeologists found mostly the pieces or shards of pottery? (Because it is so fragile.)

Assessment

• Students at this age should be assessed on whether they understand the difference between a functional art piece and a piece of art that does not have a true function. (Compare a handmade bowl and a drawing.) Students can point to the functional piece.
• Students can also be assessed on following the step by step directions given to create the clay pinch pot through teacher monitoring.
• Students should be able to tell the differences between functional art pieces (in pottery) from thousands of years ago and functional pieces we have today (made from a variety of materials including glass, plastic, paper, wood, metal). They can compare and contrast using a Venn diagram.
• At the kindergarten level, the use of pictures with the assessments should make it much easier to assess ESL students.

Supplemental information

For ESL learners, try to have the critical vocabulary in their native language with the English translation.

Critical vocabulary

• handmade: Made by hand or by a hand process.
• man-made: Manufactured, created, or constructed by human beings.
• clay: An earthy material that is plastic when moist but hard when fired. Composed mainly of fine particles of hydrous aluminum silicates, and other minerals. Used for brick, tile, and pottery.
• archaeologist: The scientific study of material remains (such as fossil relics, artifacts, and monuments) of past human life and activities.
• functional art: Designed or developed chiefly from the point of view of use.
• pottery: A ceramic item or material made of fired clay, usually in the form of a vessel.
• ceramic: Relating to the manufacture of any product (such as earthenware, porcelain, or brick) made essentially from a nonmetallic mineral (as clay) by firing at a high temperature.

Extensions

Have students compare and contrast early Indian American pottery found in North Carolina with modern day North Carolina Indian potters.

Have students compare the potter made by North Carolina Indians with that of potters from other Indian American potters from other states and traditions.