Some of this information is taken from Kenda, M. & Williams, P.S. (1995). Math Wizardry for Kids. Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.

The Zuni rainbird is not supposed to look like a real bird. It’s made of geometric shapes including straight lines. The body and the beak are triangles, and the head is a circle. The wings are simple curves. The rainbird has power as a symbol for the Zuni people. The Zunis are one tribe of the Pueblo peoples of the western United States. They live mostly in a very dry area of New Mexico, the dark red spot on the map.

The rainbird has survived for centuries as one of the Zunis’ favorite pottery designs, perhaps because the people are often in need of rain.

The mystery of the rainbird design lies in the triangle of the body. As the triangle takes various forms, the bird is tilted at different angles. A tilt of the body triangle can mean that the bird is calling for rain, or that a thirsty bird lies sick from a lack of rain. It can mean that a happy bird is soaked with rain. Lines in the design represent far-off rain, falling like stripes from the sky.

Here’s what you need:

Pencil, protractor, and ruler; scissors. construction paper and glue or paste if you wish

1. Draw a rainbird with an equilateral triangle for its body. An equilateral triangle has three equal angles and three sides of equal length.
2. Draw a rainbird with a right triangle for its body. A right triangle has one right angle, an angle that measures 90 degrees.
3. Draw a rainbird with an isosceles triangle for its body. An isosceles triangle has two sides of equal length.
4. Draw a rainbird with a scalene triangle for its body. In a scalene triangle, all three angles are different, and all three sides are different lengths.
5. If you wish, draw shapes for the rainbirds on construction paper, cut them out, and paste them onto a sheet of construction paper or posterboard.