Kindergarten Clay & The Five Senses

The kindergarten artists have begun a clay exploration in the art room. In their first encounter with the material, they were given an opportunity to play with the clay. Using their hands and tools, they were able to stretch, pound, flatten, roll and pinch the clay to explore how it feels in their hands, how much force is required to change its shape and how its texture changes as they work with it.

 

When students have the opportunity to engage with a material without specific instructions, they are able to draw their own conclusions and be careful observers of the discoveries that they are making. The kindergarteners were able to form spheres, coils and pound out flatter pieces of clay, or slabs, which are the basic building blocks of hand-building with clay.

In their second class using clay, the kindergarten artists were invited to create self-portraits using the clay. First they shaped their clay into a sphere, then pounded it flat to transform into a round slab. We then had a class discussion about which features of the face correlate to the different five senses.

 

The students decided that the skin on their face gave them a sense of touch. They then agreed that we could add eyes to give a sense of sight, ears to give a sense of sound, nose to give a sense of smell and mouth to give a sense of taste. The students were delighted to see their self-portrait faces come to life and completed them by adding hair, eyebrows and even some eyelashes.

After their pieces dry, they will be loaded into the kiln and fired. In an upcoming class, the kindergarteners will painting their pieces with glaze to add their skin, hair and eye color, and they will be fired again.