After two weeks of collage, the children are ready for a new 3-D art experience. They were each given a slab of clay and tools to work with. As you can see in this photo, they are all curious about these dense, pliable, cold lumps in front of them. Logan and Rogan were particularly interested in poking the clay with the tools and making “holes.”

Austin immediately began to cut the clay, back and forth, with a knife-like tool.
Soon I brought out bowls of water and sponges for the children to use on their clay. They were excited about the water and repeatedly asked for more. When I gave them more water from my squeeze bottle, Logan asked to do it himself. Then I brought out two more bottles and offered them to the other kids. Of course they were all interested!

Eventually, I brought out the collage materials from the last two weeks and offered them to the children to use with their clay.


Off they go to the easels!
Rogan experiments with finger painting on the acrylic easel.
Logan is working out how to squeeze the water onto the easel.
A messy class is a successful class!

Our 3-D art experience now takes us into the world of clay! Clay is a challenging medium. It is very dense and hard to manipulate with young hands, but once a child becomes familiar with clay, it is very intriguing! Clay comes from the earth- it is cold and smooth and can quickly change consistency by adding water or letting it dry. For such a young group of children, I have found that they are more willing to experiment with the clay if they have interesting tools to use. I gave each child a slab of clay and offered them a range of tools- popsicle sticks, combs, necklaces, rolling pins, plastic horses and cars.
Grace first pokes her clay with popsicle sticks.
Kate’s grandmother, Sylvia, shows Kate and Kirsten how the tool can cut the clay.
Soon I brought each child a sponge, spoon, and a small bowl of water to use on their clay. Kirsten put a piece of clay directly into the bowl of water, making it very slippery. She seems to be squeezing the sponge with great force!
Karuna uses the spoon to try to scoop the clay.
After the children had some time to work with the clay, I brought out the collage materials. The shells, macaroni, and beans are great for pressing into the clay for decoration.
Soon the kids were moving around looking to find some paint to get into.

During class, Grace left to get a diaper change. The other girls watched out the window, very concerned about where their friend had gone.
Back to the table for more exploration!
Painting will never get old!

This week I introduced clay to the children. None of them had any experience with clay, so it was very interesting to see how they approached it. I started them off with slabs of clay for them to touch, poke and handle. There was a little poking going on, but they seemed reluctant to handle the clay. Then I offered them tools to use on the clay… the usual clay tools: rolling pins and carving utensils- and of course cars, horses, necklaces, and combs!The combs and cars were great for making tracks in the clay.

I also gave each child a small bowl of water and a sponge to moisten their clay if it seemed dry. This made the clay more pliable and very slippery!

After working with the tools, I brought out the bin of collage materials from the previous week for the children to stick into the clay.
Soon, Jordan and Karuna moved to the easel to work on monoprints.

Richie was still very focused on the cars!

After some movement around the studio, the kids came back to their clay to continue working. It’s always important for any artist to be able to take a break and then re-visit their work with a fresh perspective. What great artists!