Squeeze it, Squish it, Wet it......

 Our study of trees has evolved into a discussion about forests. Today, the children had the opportunity to use clay and create animals, trees, etc. for our growing forest. They used popsicle sticks to smooth the clay and make lines,  their hands to make ridges,  and their imaginations to tell us about the  caves, rocks, bores, monsters, and porcupines that live in the forest. Tomorrow the clay will return for Act II.

Zach Explores a New Medium

 

Zachary was  one of the Levana friends who approached the clay table with caution. He spent time looking at it and watching kids play with it then he would leave and play with animals. He did this two or three times but he wouldn't actually touch the clay. After awhile he was on the other side of the room playing with a plastic puppy and then ran over to the clay table, took a ball of clay and and then put the puppy into the clay and made paw prints!

At that point in the morning we had only been using our hands to explore clay. However, we know that Zach loves animals and found creating foot prints a way to engage with the animals while participating with many on his peers.

Zach then preceded to go back and forth across the room and grab one of each animal to compare their prints. After I awhile he had the idea to get a car. He then zoomed the car back and forth across the clay and exclaimed, "I made tracks!" he had created a neat road. After the car he then got out the bucket of playdough tools and then he chose to hammer the clay with a wooden hammer. After that he shoved his hands into the clay and started to mold it. It was so neat how many different manipulative Zachary used before he felt comfortable enough to dive in and touch the clay. Yet, once he was comfortable he was so exited he didn't want to stop. He made me a beautiful ice cream sundae with a cherry on top and worked hard to learn how to use his hands to roll a ball.

I was also impressed that Zachary had such a strong vision for how he wanted to interact with the clay and he seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do step-by-step. It was so fun to watch each of them engaging with clay and I hope we get to explore with it again soon!

Levana explores clay!

Today the Levana class explored clay! It was so neat to watch the group look at it, and then grow intrigued by it, and then by mid-way through the morning, most of the class was playing with it!  Clay is a fun medium simply to explore. Hannah worked on using two hands to press it flat like a pancake. Mason used a popsicle stick as a tool to cut the clay into pieces. Michelle's technique was to take a big ball and then divide it into many many teeny tiny pieces.  Each child was able to interact with the clay in their own way and then they also each enjoyed watching each other to get ideas of how to use clay.  Throughout the morning we pinched clay and smashed clay, we rolled cars on clay and made foot prints with different animals. Some kids used tools like the hammers or clay scissors others just liked the way it felt on their hands. Open ended projects allows each child the opportunity to explore and learn. It was neat to watch children begin to understand how clay responds to their hands and motions. We talked about how to make a snake vs. how to make a ball. It was a station enjoyed by many this morning and I'm sure we will have clay again soon!

Etzim Enjoys Clays!

Today the Etzim class got a chance to talk about, and then play with clay! I  joined their circle and  explained to them that throughout the year we will be doing different kinds of art together.
We talked about all the different art we like:

Hillary, Sydney, Nicholas and Ellen like to paint
Abby likes coloring
Bella and Lindsey like Markers
Julia and Jillian like Rainbow Crayons
Olivia likes Playdough

Olivia gave us a great opening to talk about playdough. We talked about we use our hands we play with playdough and what playdough feels like.  Then we talked about clay. Some of the class had worked with clay before but not all. We imagined that we had clay in our hands and practiced rolling the clay into a ball. Then we practiced rolling it into a snake. Then we pretended to pinch the play dough and lastly we pretended to make it flat like a pancake.

After we talked about different ways to experience clay we gave each child a chance to just explore clay. they LOVED it. The class worked for about twenty minutes just poking, rolling and enjoying having their own clay to manipulate.

Jacob made a rock: "I just rolled the clay into a ball like this"
Rachel made a pancake: "I smushed it with my hands and belly"
Lindsey made a cookie, "I made dots on the top. You make it flatter with your fingers."

I loved having the chance to watch them explore and I am looking forward to continuing our clay study soon! Thanks Etzim for welcoming me, I can't wait to come back!

Moses at Mt Sinai

 

Originally the holiday of Shavuot celebrated the end of the grain harvest. The nature of the celebration of the holiday has changed over time. The holiday became associated with the giving of the Ten Commandments to the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai. The Levana children created their own representations of Mt. Sinai with air-drying clay, rocks and the Moses figure.

Working with Clay

Each week on Thursdays after lunch we will have an art activity with Liz Green (Josh's mom). Today Liz brought us clay to work with. There were jewels and shells to set into the clay. There were rolling pins, brushes and other objects to use to create textures in the clay. Next week, after they dry, the children will paint their clay objects. Let the creativity begin! 

Let's Play With Clay!

Last Thursday we had our first session of my new Thursday art time for Levana, Rainbow, and Unicorn students. Our first media was clay and we had a fantastic time! Max and Nathan were joined by Tel Aviv students Molly, Rachel and Jacob and together we played, poked and experimented with two different kinds of clay.

The first clay we played with was a brown sculpting clay. The group described this clay as sticky and mushy. Jacob made a worm out of the class because it reminded him of dirt. They enjoyed rolling it into balls and worms. Max pressed different shells in the clay to make fossils.

Next we took out some model magic molding clay. We had lots of white clay and some clay of different colors. We quickly learned that if you pinch and mush the clay long enough the colors blend together! It was neat to watch the colors mix together first with streaks and then eventually it would become one solid color. After playing with the color clay we brought out some markers and continued to experiment with color. This clay wasn’t as sticky and Max said it, “felt like a sponge.” Model magic was a much lighter clay than the molding clay we played with earlier. It was neat to watch the group compare and contrast the different types of clay. They loved using their hands to create neat, individual creations. Next week is Collage Creations and we hope to see you there!!

Mr. Clay is Back!

"Mr. Clay" is back! Last week the All Star Lunch Bunch children had their last curriculum planning meeting. The teachers ask them what would you like to do for the last week of school? Well it was unanimous..."We want to play with Mr. Clay!"

Today we played with Mr. Clay but he was a little on the dry side, so we sprayed him with a bit of water and that seemed to do the trick. We used our thumbs and fingers to pinch and mold "Mr.Clay". He will be back tomorrow!

Make Your Own Volcano!

This week in the Scientist class we are focusing on an explosive topic...VOLCANOES!! Today as a morning activity there was an option to make your own personal volcano. The setup included trays of clays in volcano-shaped mounds, and our new volcano book as a reference. Little did I realize that we were missing a big part of volcanoes...lava! I looked over to see how to kids were doing, and I saw they had pulled out the glitter to make lava.



The Scientists had to work cooperatively together, sharing space, ideas, and materials.

Not everyone was enthralled with glitter however. Naomi wanted to make a volcano as well, but she chose to use construction paper as lava as a cleaner alternative to glitter.

Our Scientists never cease to amaze me!

-Alison Simpson