Clay in the early years art programme

Clay gives young children opportunities to develop a set of valuable visual art skills. Also, it connects children to a natural resource that has been used by people around the world for thousands of years for art creation. This unique art medium reflects our respect for the nature. Clay is able to be reused and clay works can be recycled, which is an important benefit of using clay in the early childhood art programme. Using clay promotes greater awareness of environmental issues and sustainability.

The simplest of physical actions: squeezing, patting, poking, rolling, coiling, or piling it up - produces an immediate and satisfying change to the shape and form of a piece of clay. While the children are exploring the possibilities of clay as a medium of artistic expression, they are learning how clay behave and how they can use it to make their idea visible. It involves problem solving.

Younger children, particularly, seem to enjoy using clay and are delighted in its sensory and tactile qualities. They are quite bold in tackling wet and damp clay. While younger children tend to create abstract works, the older ones aim to be representational in their creation.

The teacher may want to bring out clay regularly. With practice, children will develop more sophisticated skills and be able to add complexity to their creations. Just give plenty of time for children to figure things out by themselves.

While it's important to let children explore and make discoveries, teachers' support is important too. Click this link for more.

using recycling materials for art

I am asked to look after the recycling area for the kindergarten for a month. Our kindy has a strong focus on the issues of environmental conservation and care. We have a well established resource bench keeping recycling materials for children to use as collage. The materials are carefully sorted in glass jars according to their colors, offering possibilities and inspiring creativity. Open-ended materials allow children choices and independence, which are crucial in stimulating genuine creativity. I believe in offering open-ended materials in the art area, as making something out of such materials requires and builds flexibility, and it develops the ability to focus while the product may remain unknown. Art making then produces a greater sense of competence in children.

So I have been thinking, “What can I do to further extend learning in this area?” “How can I encourage/motivate the children to go further?” “What new materials can I introduce?”
After I have done some research and observation, I am convinced that the  area is working well. What I can do to bring the learning to the next level could probably be topping up the materials and tidying up the area with the children, just that simple! 

Cathy Weisman Topal,  coauthor with Lella Gandini of Beautiful Stuff (1999), points out that children develop power when they build individual relationships with materials. When children have the chance to notice, collect, and sort materials, and when teachers respond to their ideas, the children become artists, designers, and engineers. When children are simply given materials to use without the chance to explore and understand them, the materials do not become part of the their world.

Let me also quote an example from Weisman Topal :
When a child says, “Oh, I need some of that red netting from onions,” he demonstrates that he has experience, knowledge, and a relationship with the material, a connection. It is not somebody else’s discovery; it is the child’s. Whenever a child makes the discovery, it’s exciting, it’s fun. The child is the researcher and the inventor; this builds confidence.

I am hopeful that with guidance from teachers in the exploration of materials, our kindy children are able to accomplish more. I will keep posting...

In the meantime, check out my favourite ECE New Zealand website and get inspiration from Lisa Terreni, a practising artist and an ECE lecturer.

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