Making Clay

Our nearby county park has a wonderful Nature Center which runs free educational programs on the weekends. They also host the Homeschool Nature Class that Mikro attends. Today, we went to this:

THE CLAY OF CROTON

Details: Native American residents of Croton Point made pots from the abundant clay beds of Croton Point. Follow in their footsteps by learning about Native American pottery traditions.

We started off by harvesting fragments of oyster shells near the river.



Then we ground them into powder with a rock.



Next, we ground lumps of clay into powder. (It was too cold today to go dig it out, unfortunately... so we used some that Scott had on hand.)



Then we mixed the powdered clay and shells with some Hudson River sand, added water, and made clay. Messy, but so much fun!

We got to make something with our clay-- Kev did a pinch pot, and I did a little bird, which park naturalist Scott tells me looks like a whippoorwill. Mikro Mr. Sensory chose to watch rather than get his hands all goopy.





Next Thursday is our last Homeschool Nature Class until mid-January, and the kids are going to get to do this clay project. Hopefully Mikro will be more willing to participate then, since he seems bound and determined to keep up with the other kids...