Pacific Northwest Clay Totems

Grade Level: all ages

Clay is a wonderful medium for all ages. It provided an excellent way to introduce the Pacific Northwest First Nations culture, symbols, and art to these K-6 students.
Introducing the students to the culture of these peoples through a look and discussion of the monumental sculptures that were created once in abundance led to a hands-on totem segment building project. Each student created a unique totem pole segment with clay that was then fired and later painted. The totems were stacked and a class totem was "erected". This was such a fun project with such great kids!