Fourth Grade Spirit Rattles

Materials Needed

• Clay- preferably red
• tools
• glaze
• small pieces of fired clay- to place inside rattle
Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale

Fourth grade read the book Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale. They discussed different types of rattles- baby rattles, maracas, native American rattles, etc.

They planned their rattle by drawing a sketch of what they wanted it to look like in their sketchbook. I had a variety of Native American resources on hand for them to look at, including resources that explained the symbology that is used.



When they were ready, they were given a ball of clay. They formed this clay into a pinch pot. They put pieces of already fired clay into the pot and then made another pinch pot. The pots were attached to create a sphere. Some students stepped outside of the box and made different shapes than spheres. I had hearts, stars, cubes, but the majority ended up being spheres.

A handle was formed out of more clay.

The students added textures to their rattles with different tools and texture plates.

After the rattles were fired, they were glazed. When we were glazing, we talked about how they didn't have to cover the entire rattle with glaze. The beautiful red clay could show through. They could use the glaze to highlight the designs and textures that they had created in their rattle.

We then covered the entire rattle with clear glaze and I fired them one last time. Pin It