Early Learning & Teaching with Clay
Earth and Body
clay connects us to the Earth
Through clay we can facilitate children’s understanding of their physical relationship to the Earth
Central to the clay program philosophy is the idea that through the sensory and tactile nature of clay, children can have a direct experience of the Earth. Ann Ferguson believes that “children are also able to have an embodied experience of the world around them, through working in 3-dimensions with clay”. This is made possible by various direct experiences with clay, such as placing their feet and hands in a slab of clay or a bath of wet clay; hand painting and printing with clay slip; tracing a friend’s body in long coils; or building an image of themselves from short coils of clay.
Through individual and group-work, the children were able to explore various clay techniques such as;
Slab work – slabs of clay to impress feet and hands into.
Coil work for creating fingers and hands.
Drawing onto a ‘hump-moulded’ form; hand prints from wet clay slip with added pva; drawing body outlines with long coils; building a portrait from coils.
Through clay we can facilitate children’s understanding of their physical relationship to the Earth
Central to the clay program philosophy is the idea that through the sensory and tactile nature of clay, children can have a direct experience of the Earth. Ann Ferguson believes that “children are also able to have an embodied experience of the world around them, through working in 3-dimensions with clay”. This is made possible by various direct experiences with clay, such as placing their feet and hands in a slab of clay or a bath of wet clay; hand painting and printing with clay slip; tracing a friend’s body in long coils; or building an image of themselves from short coils of clay.
Through individual and group-work, the children were able to explore various clay techniques such as;
Slab work – slabs of clay to impress feet and hands into.
Coil work for creating fingers and hands.
Drawing onto a ‘hump-moulded’ form; hand prints from wet clay slip with added pva; drawing body outlines with long coils; building a portrait from coils.