Gather the materials you need, including quick-drying clay, already-made terra cotta pots, Native American designs, tempera paint in black, white, red and yellow and paintbrushes.
Roll the quick-drying clay into a long even "tube." Carefully coil this tube into a base, then start laying coils up to form sides. Push the coils gently together to make them stick and form walls. Make sure the pot is even and balanced.
Review the Native American designs and choose a few to paint onto the terra cotta pots. The colors people most often use are black, white, yellow and red. However, you may use other colors. It can be easier to paint the pots if they are turned upside down. Doing this, students learn history and culture. Different teams can recreate designs from different Native American tribes to broaden the number of designs used.
Using self-hardening red clay, students can mold out a pinch pot that they can then paint. Starting with a ball of clay the size of a large egg, the kids use their thumbs to push the sides of the clay pot out and work it into a bowl. The clay dries very fast and they must dip their fingers in water often to keep the clay moist. Once the bowl is dry they can paint it using a design of their choice.