Art Class: Week 3: clay

Okay, I apologize I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures. This week's art class with two-year-olds proved that this is a class about making things rather than learning. We were give slabs of clay to make tiles. It was apparent that the parents were more involved than the children.

Our first assignment was to make a hand print in the clay. Leah had no problem with this as she had already done this. She placed her hand on the clay and I pressed down on it making sure to get the heel of the hand. It is a common error when making a hand print not to get the heel. This is partly due to the awkward angle that the child's hand has to be in order to accomplish this. The wrist must be at a complete right angle or the heel does not print. We were then allowed to embellish our hand print tile with a variety of implements.

This could have been great! Unfortunately, there was only one of each item and eight children. As you can guess this did not bode well. Young children do not have much patience. The other problem was that they were using sponge printing tool. This would be fine with adults but to make an impression with a sponge on clay requires a great deal of pressure and strength, The little kids just didn't get it. Wooden blocks or hard plastic would have been more suitable.

It is great to explore clay with young children but you should do that. Let the child "explore" the clay. Creating a clay tile for Grandma is a project with very little learning taking place. Letting the child roll the clay, smash the clay, coil the clay, squeeze the clay or otherwise manipulate the clay provides them with a understanding of what clay is and how it can be used. Not having a tangible object at the end of the exploration is okay. Such manipulation also is more age appropriate for the child. They are at a stage where they are not so concerned about the beauty of a project as they are about the feel of the project.

I promise to take pictures this week. I think we are going to paint the tiles that the adults made.