Clay: Working with the Earth

Clay comes from the Earth: Ancient, Organic, Substantial.

It is cool and has smooth moistness. Clay requires muscle. We engage clay with our hands (and even our feet) and we feel it on our skin. There is an intuitive aspect to working with clay; through many encounters, we develop a sense of its fluidity and substance.

This week, the children were invited to experience clay through exuberant physical play with Christine and I in the Atelier. I did this whole body exploration with the children last year, but since we have new friends with us, I pulled out another 25 lb block of clay, and we did it again. The floor was empty, except for a big tarp in the middle, and a block of red clay. The children were invited to climb on to the block of clay, to dig into it with their toes, fingers, and elbows. We focused on building a physical and experiential knowledge of clay with small groups of children and we will continue next week for those who didn't get a chance this week.



The common initial response was hesitation and skepticism, however, as soon as the children were encouraged to stand on top with their bare feet, all doubts were out the door!

Sophia: “Look at that!”

Jalie: “I want to try!” ... “Oooh, It’s squishy.”

Eddie: “Squishy!”

Jalie pulled off a piece and made a snake.

Lucca remained standing on the clay, vigorously tearing off pieces and relishing in the whole body experience.

Damon: "I’m making a big rock! Look it, I’m making a WHOLE rock!"

Sophia: “I’m making a mommy one. There’s two. A baby one too. And my JJ and my Dominique...and my Grandpa, and my Memaw."

Eddie noticed the clay got "bigger"as he stomped on it.

Jalie: "Look what it made! I want to get more clay...I’m making a pancake...It’s a castle now."

Damon: "It's a Sleeping Triceratops."

Ava: "I’m smooshing mine."

Gwen: [rolling clay] "This is a snake"

Anika: "Can I do it now?" [jumped on clay for a good amount of time noticing it became flatter and wider]

Damon: “It’s a worm now.”

Ava [began gathering popsicle sticks from the atelier] “I’m making a castle, with a garden,” then proceeded to gather bottle caps and acorns to add to her creation.  “Look Ms Andrea, each acorn goes in the garden."

Gwen discovered she could use a CD to cut her clay in pieces.

Jason: [When invited to explore with the clay] “No, I clean! I clean! My feet CLEEEAN!”

Allie: "Well, how 'bout I jump on it?"

Atticus: “How about a birthday cake? ...Ta da! It’s now a birthday cake. I blow out candle.”

Allie: “Remember, don’t eat the clay, it’s just a pretend birthday cake.”

Ryland: "It’s brown. It feels like soft sidewalk."

Allie: “With my cake, I'm making a cupcake...and also a piñata."

Jason: [after some gentle nudging, became completely absorbed in the exploration], “I made hot dog!” Two hot dog!"

Ryland: "This dinosaur, is it enormous? "It has eyebrows"

Jason: “A transformer!”

Corbin: “Wow! Vrroooom! "I’m strong!” [continues making car noises]

Mia S. “It looks like Poo!”

Alaira: [While standing on the clay] “It’s moving! I want to keep two feet on it.”

McKenna: “It’s gooey”

Natalie: I love clay! I want to explore too.”

Mia S. “I make shallow holes”

McKenna: "Heavy"!

Allie: "Look it’s a taco…and now I smashed it into a tamale. [Minutes later] Now it’s a tortilla!"

The children did many different things with clay. Pounded it, jumped on it, stomped on it, flattened it, tore off pieces, rolled it. They noticed how to make different marks; using the whole hand, scratching with fingers, poking holes...

























As children brought their whole bodies to their encounters with clay, they were able to experience the responsiveness of the clay. This relationship between the children and clay, will deepen over the months ahead as the children continue to encounter this medium. This truly begins the dialogue between children and clay, and an invitation into the centuries-old tradition of working with the earth.

It's the Process, not the Product

ART
Stage 2 of our clay exploration continues.

Mia and Lulu discovered that the more water they apply to their clay, the more pliable it becomes. Mia began dunking her clay directly into the water dish. Like I talked about last week, we are avoiding the temptation to interrupt their research to give direction about how much water to use. This is all part of the process.





At this early stage, we encourage children to see any sculptural work they do as temporary, not something to save or take home. This will strengthen the disposition to "mess around" and focus on the process more than product. As children grow into this, they become more relaxed with an art medium. This leaves space for an idea to take form, and children become more comfy with revisiting and revising earlier work.





Light table continues to be a great discovery tool.
Will do a new exploration on it next week. Couldn't get to it this week with all the other fun.



Lulu and Mia doing clay exploration.
Damon pretend playing with the groceries.
Ms. Kellyann documenting.









Conversing




Representational Painting
"It's the number OCHO!", says Corbin.



Corbin's Artful Hands
Self Applied


Damon loves to pretend play


And he brought muffins to share this week.
They were delicious and the children devoured them during snack.





Practical Life
Mia and Lulu helping set the table



Damon and Sophia relaxing.



Yoga Snippets



Bridge Pose



Happy Baby Pose





The children love Ms. Kellyann.
It's great having an assistant because we can often break into small groups as the children want it.





Next week, we'll begin our focus on Seeds! We'll plant our spring garden too!

P.S.

Sooooo...

I viewed the *perfect* property this week. There is some punch work that needs to be done and here's hoping that it will work out. We also have to run a P&L report to see if it's a financially viable option since it will only house a small group of children (which is TOTALLY what I want, but the lease is a bit higher than I'm comfortable with). I am trying not to get my hopes up in case is doesn't work out. Don't want to get my passion zapped, ya know. It's also for sale, price recently dropped from $580K to $500K. Still a bit above the budget.

But, did I mention it's ADORABLE??
It has Terra Luz written all over it! It's a historical building with CHARACTER.

Clay, Suncatchers, and Love Notes

ART
Clay Exploration – Stage Two



This week we began Stage Two of our Clay Exploration, which is building on the foundation of what the children experienced last week with full body play. We moved the clay to the table and each child was given a sponge and a canvas covered wood board (gotta love the hubby who runs to Home Depot at 7:00 the night before to buy wood and then saw it into squares).

This stage invites children to work with individual chunks and changing the clay’s texture by adding water to it. The children continue building their physical knowledge of clay, experiencing its movement and texture, as they move toward eventual sculpting work. We had fun, and boy, was it messy fun!

Che immersed himself in the full on sensory exploration of clay’s qualities by almost dissolving his clay into goopey mud. He was being a researcher, investigating the contact of water on the clay. Us, as teachers, are encouraged to avoid the temptation to interrupt their research since this research is an important step in their journey toward representational work.

Lulu opted for extended clay time long after the table cleared. This is the beauty of running an Reggian-inspired program. Kids don't all have to "go with the group" and "work at the same pace". There is no fragmented periods of time here. And she has moved into the representational stage. She is hard at work creating a sculpture for her mama.

~*~

The light table has been a bit hit. Ms. Krista (our yoga teacher, who is a former Reggian teacher) gave me a GREAT idea on what we can do on the table, which will be an extension of a previous project we did. We’ll do that next week! Stay tuned!

We learned two new Good Morning Songs and a new Cleaning Up Song.

This week, we read There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. We read the contemporary version and also the original version, which has these really cool “vintage” illustrations.

We also enjoyed the Napping House by Don and Audrey Wood.

This story also a cumulative tale like the There Was an Old Lady stories.



Ms. Kellyann and the children singing Ring around the Rosie

Yoga Snippets

Spreading Love
We usually don't do "crafty" things here with all the art exploration and projects we already do, but I thought it would be fun to make Valentine Suncatchers this week.







Now that I have Kellyann here, we have been able to keep up with portfolios. A LOT of work goes into these (which we would love to share with you all soon) and I will be able to begin creating the Documentation Boards on our Art Explorations, which is basically what I do on my blog, but with a bit more detail. These will be great to take with us when I move offsite so parents can see how a project can evolve over time.

Hope your children enjoyed finding their love notes from me in their lunchboxes this week.

I got much joy out of writing them all.

"Love grows by giving.
The love we give away is the only love we keep.
The only way to retain love is to give it away."

-Elbert Hubbard