Notes on fourth graders exploring clay

I began my clay unit simply giving students clay, a board to work on, water and some simple tools. Normally, for exploration period I purposely don't give out many directives or complicated agendas. I really want to see where students are in their understanding of the media. 
The student below used his iPad, which they bring to art each time, to look up an idea. In this case he found a sculpey step by step image of how to make an owl. 



Some students did not need to look up their idea on an iPad. This student came up with this unicorn head all on her own. Just as this other student (on the right) came up with a cat sculpture all on their own. I find that kids who have a passion for something will very often immediately go to their passion and make an image of that. This is true for all media, from drawing, collage to clay. 

      

Below is an even more advanced exploration. This child not only connected several 3d shapes together to make a more complex figure, but also used the tools I provided them to add texture to the croc body. The two above, though advanced, would benefit from also adding some texture to their work. So, obviously texture is something I am going to have to explicitly teach and/or have them explore further, maybe in one of our challenges. 

Here too, the student used the tools provided to add texture to their sculpture. 

I want to briefly touch again on the importance of celebrating where al children are in this process. When I say a child is more advanced or less advanced it in no way reflects the importance I place on the place they are. Every stage is as essential as the next. There are students who spent the hour simply stabbing at the clay with the tools, or rolling it, wetting it and using the hands to feel the smoothness of the clay when wet. The way to have them advance into more complex stages is to allow these preliminary stages to run their course. Below (bottom of image) is a child who spent most of the class simply rolling the class, adding water, touching it, adding more water, rolling, etc. I am confident that next time she will move forward and begin making sculptures that show her increased understanding of the media. 


One thing I found interesting when doing exploration in class with various age students in one week has been the kids' need to verbalize, make noises and be loud. Not sure exactly why this happens, yet students have been a LOT noisier in class. Some make repetitive sounds while stabbing at the class, some announce what they have made. One child today, for example, soundly exclaimed, "Mira estate belleza de plato."(look at this beauty of a plate) several times in class. Again, I think these increased verbalizations are part of the process. Clay is such an extreme media. It's heavy, cold, requires a lot more hand muscles to manipulate. I think they both love it but also need an outlet for the intensity they feel when working with it. 

Here are some examples of the tools I have saved and use in class. 

Clean-up is easy. ONCE the tables are EMPTY, and I emphasize empty, because otherwise you have TOTAL CHAOS! when the tables are empty, give each child a squeezed out sponge. With the younger kids I collect their dirty ones and give them a new squeezed out sponge. These sponges, you might notice, are the packing material for "fruit of the month" deliveries. I cut them up and they work better than normal sponges. They also last the whole year, or longer. 

Each child needs to work on top of a wooden surface to make clean up easier. During exploration all they have to do is place all tools in the tool box, place the boards in the box and place their clay balls back in a bag. Once they have done that they get the sponges I mentioned above.