Madri Ophoff
Ancient clay pot art
While visiting a museum displaying iron age pots, point out the decorative patterns made in the clay. In the classroom discuss: What could possibly have been available for the people who made the pots to make such decorations? What natural objects were available to them? Create 2 dimensional pot shapes using air dry clay. Have students roll the clay out and either cut a free hand shape or place a paper template of a pot on the rolled clay. Cut around the template. For smaller kids let them draw the shape lightly on the rolled out clay using a pencil and let teacher cut the shape for them. Collect natural objects like stones, shells, bones, sticks, grass etc and use these to decorate the clay pot shape. Let students enjoy creating different patterns and see if they can tell what a fellow student used to create their patterns and discuss what they used. Let the clay pot art dry completely over the next day or 2.
