How an art lesson becomes a literacy lesson.

A small group of ākonga chose to join me in learning how to make pinch pots out of clay. We watched a youtube clip on how to make a pinch pot then we began to experiment.  As we were making our pots, I noticed there was lots of talk about how the clay felt and looked. As they came to the end of their making I asked the ākonga to share their ideas of how the clay felt, looked, smelled and sounded and wrote these on the whiteboard.

The ākonga I was working with were eager to share their ideas. When we finally ran out of words, I asked how could we put that into writing. We decided a poem because all the words we had were good at describing things. I asked if anyone knew what a Haiku was. We had a conversation about the structure of a haiku and what syllables are.

They all practiced finding and clapping the syllables in their names and in objects around us. Then all together we started putting our ideas into sentences, then taking the ‘little’ words like 'and, it and is' out. 

This is their co-operative poem:

The Pinch Pot
Soft, squishy, cold lump
Blanket of dirt encircling
Thumbs up to knuckles.

By Jake, Oliver, Cynric and Ella