May is the Flower Moon
Can you guess how the second grade artists made these ceramic rattles? They used a special technique using two pinch pots to make a round rattle inspired by the full moon. We read some full moon poems from the book, When The Moon Is Full by Mary Azarian. The titles of the poems are from Native American names for each full moon. The second grade artists chose a poem to inspire their own full moon rattle design.
June is the Strawberry Moon
Each rattle has a unique sound depending on the size and number of beads inside. Lisa's second grade class worked with our amazing perfoming arts specialist, Ben Griffiths, to record these unique sounds using garageband (how cool is that?!). Originally, we had just wanted to make a recording of the rattles but our very creative students thought it would be even better to include the poems too!
Listen to all of their beautiful work here.
February is the Snow Moon
October is the Hunter’s Moon
August is the Green Corn Moon
January is the Wolf Moon
July is the Buck Moon
December is the Long Night Moon
March is the Sap Moon
April is the Frog Moon
We finished this project a couple of months ago to coincide with this rare cosmic event. We'll have to wait until the year 2094 to see that happen again but you can always see the next full moon on March 19th!
these are beautiful. i also do clay rattles based on mexican art with my fourth graders. do you have them do the textures and carving before or after you seal the two pots? i had the best luck with surface designs after sealing, but before punching the hole, but it wasn't completely foolproof. i'm curious if you have some tips.
ReplyDeleteThanks Hope:)
ReplyDeleteI just sent an email to you so we can compare notes.
Hi Shannah
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of your site. I'm going to work with my college students on the coral reef project for lesson planning as was wondering if we could talk via email about how you did your project with the elem school students. My email is cindy.maguire@gmail.com. I'm a professor at Adelphi University on Long Island, NY.
Thanks!
Cindy
Hello Cindy,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the hello and kind words. I'm happy to share and will send an email your way!
Hi Shanna,
ReplyDeleteI love your blog! I am a former NCS teacher now living in northern Minnesota. I am teaching the Keepers of the Earth theme and want to make rattles with my kids. I've made my own years ago, but I was wondering what kind of clay and glaze/paints you used. They are beautiful!
Thanks,
Suzy
Hello Suzy and thank you so much! Julie was just talking about you the other day:)
ReplyDeleteWe used a low fire talc-free white clay body but I've used red clay with success on this project before. After the rattle was fired in the kiln, they painted on a layer of black tempera and wiped away the surface to bring out the texture. Then they had the choice of metallic watercolors and metallic acrylic paint (using a sponging application method, a little goes a long way). Some chose to use both.
Hope that helps. And thank you again for stopping by my blog. How fun to meet a former NCS teacher here:) Email me if you have any questions:
sburton@newcityschool.org