Explorations with Clay

Clay is a resource which is readily available in our Kindergarten. We choose to offer it instead of play-dough as we believe that as children develop an understanding of clay and its possibilities they will develop skills and knowledge which will take them beyond the capabilities of play-dough; therefore clay grows with the child.

Clay comes from the earth: ancient, organic, substantial. It smells cool and dark. It is made from rock that has been transported far from its original source. It occurs in seams or beds which are often near a body of water.

Clay requires muscle. We engage with clay with our skin and because it comes from the earth, playing and working with clay grounds and connects children to the earth and nature.

Over the past two weeks we have chosen to offer our children full-body exploration with clay. This thinking was inspired by two schools of thought, one being that we have many new children who may not have had previous experiences with clay and the second was the writings of master teacher Ann Pelo.

Ann emphasises that full-body exploration allows children to develop a relationship or friendship with clay. And that understanding clay’s identity is essential prior knowledge to using it as an art medium.

“As children bring their whole body to the experience of clay, they experience the responsiveness of the clay. This first encounter, body to body, begins the dialogue between children and clay” (Pelo, 2007)

Inspired by Ann’s writings, we re-set up our clay space by removing the table and replacing it with a large plastic tarp on the floor. Next we set out a new clean block of white porcelain clay.

This large block invited lots of curious participants; why was it on the floor? What could be done with it? And we responded; we are going to explore this with our whole bodies!

 

 

Tentative first movements of curled toes and pressed in fingers soon gave way to exuberant pounding and jumping. This block could hold the children’s weight yet with lots of physical activity could be slowly moulded towards the floor.

As the children played we offered words to invite further investigation; I wonder what knees do to clay? Look what happens under your jumping feet, what happens if you press in your elbows?

“Each child is unique and the protagonist of his or her own growth. Children desire to acquire knowledge, have much capacity for curiosity and amazement, and yearn to create relationships” – Loris Malaguzzi

With a morning of pounding and exploration the clay soon became wide and flat like a pancake which offered new possibilities for rolling and reforming a mound and invited team work and collaboration, as flattened clay is also heavy!

After two weeks of exploration our clay is now back on the table and being offered in large lumps. As teachers we have valued observing Ann’s writing’s un-fold into real experiences. Many of the children have thoroughly loved the opportunity to explore the clay with their whole bodies, which is a great reminder to us as educators to remember to take all learning back to its beginning at times.

As Maryann Kohl reminds us “Art is a process, not a product”

Nga mihi nui

Kim Townsend

Happy Chinese New Year - 恭禧發財

This week begun at Kindergarten with some discussions (researching and sharing of knowledge) about the Chinese New Year. This festival starts with the New Moon on the first day of the New Year (this year Sunday 10th February) and ends on the full moon 15 days later. Chinese New Year is a truly special event and one that we enjoy celebrating every year at Mairtown.

At whanau time on Monday our conversations about the Chinese New Year began. Many of our older children remembered the celebration from last year and were keen to share their thoughts and experiences with the rest of the group.

We discussed the history of this ancient festival and how according to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with a fight against a mythical beast called the Nian -年. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers (and children!). To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year for the Nian to eat so it wouldn’t attack any more village people. One day however, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red, the villagers soon realised that the Nian was afraid of the colour red, hence red lanterns were hung and red spring scrolls placed on windows and doors each new year.

After the story we hung our own lanterns.

We also used some ‘ang pow’ (Chinese red packets) to create our own star decorations. This fiddly and intricate work required a great deal of folding and the use of fine motor skills as well as patience and persistence. 

Joel shared his knowledge of ang pow:

 “There's money in it. It's for Chinese New Year. It's real real real money. They are lucky envelopes I think, is there money in these ones?”

Over the week we have continued to look at many of the Chinese symbols represented in art and writing, introduced ourselves to a few Chinese words and have begun to get an understanding of the traditional customs at New Year.

On Wednesday we welcomed lots of children dressed in traditional costume to Kindergarten ready for our Chinese Banquet.

It was wonderful to see so many families bring in their Chinese treasures from home to share with the rest of Kindergarten.                                                                                                             

Here Leah practices the ancient art of T'ai Chi Ch'uan (tai chi - 太極拳)  using a sword brought in by Daniela (Lucas's mum).                                                                                                

The sharing of food with our tamariki, whanau and community is something we truly value here at Mairtown. A big thank you to William’s family - Ivy and Jack - who supplied all the delicious food from their local take-away shop.

"The family is one of nature's masterpieces"  

George Santayana

“Children’s learning and development are fostered if the well-being of their family and community is supported; if their family, culture, knowledge and community are respected; and if there is a strong connection and consistency among all aspects of the child’s word” (Te Whāriki, NZ Early Childhood Curriculum, p.42)

One of the customs associated with the Chinese New Year is the giving of ‘ang pow' (Chinese red packets). Traditionally these are filled with money and given to children and young people as gifts. These packets are beautifully decorated with writing or illustrations symbolising blessings, good wishes, prosperity and good health.

Red is seen as a lucky colour which will bring good luck to the person receiving it.

Here is a little photo clip of events from the week so far.

Christine

Monarch Butterflies

The season is upon us again when Monarch butterflies lay hundreds of eggs causing swan plants to be demolished by hungry little caterpillars. Only this year we have had hardly any caterpillars on our swan plants. This is due to the fact that wasps are eating the newly hatched caterpillars for their dinner. So knowing this, some of the children made it their mission to rescue baby caterpillars from these evil wasps.

In one morning Alex found ten babies and brought them indoors for their own safety. This created a huge amount of interest amongst the children as they began to observe the caterpillars grow. Next to where the caterpillars were placed was some research books about Monarch butterfly, as well as pens and paper which encouraged children engage in observational drawing. This created lots of dialogue where the children discussed their ideas and knowledge about the wonderful Monarch butterfly and their life cycle.

Pesiki: “They go to sleep and the next day they wake up and change into a small butterfly.”
Alex: “No! They sleep for 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, 5 days and then they wake up and turn into butterflies.”
Pesiki: “Oh. You know that the caterpillars eat these leaves but we can’t.”
Alex: “Yeah, because they are poisonous to us, aye.”
Pesiki: “Yeah, they can eat the leaves and get big and fat. If the caterpillars don’t eat the leaves then they will get skinny.”

For some of these children revisiting the caterpillars has become a huge part of their day at kindergarten. They have been noting all the changes, beaming with excitement when they discover that the caterpillars have morphed into chrysalis’s and waiting with anticipation for the great reveal, when the butterfly emerges.

Many darwings of the Monarch butterfly life cycle have been created over the last few weeks. We love to record the children’s ideas, thoughts and knowledge so we encourage them to tell us about what they have drawn and what they know about the butterflies. This allows them to be able to revisit and critique their own work and extend on their own learning. Here are a few wonderful examples of the children’s voices.

Joseph was discussing the concept of metamorphosis while drawing his picture.

“They do metamorphosis. It is four things that they change into. First the caterpillar, then they slide into their cocoon, then they turn into butterflies. That’s metamorphosis. My Mum taught me about metamorphosis because she’s really clever and tricky.”

Aimee talked about what she was drawing. Her understanding was that Monarch Butterfly need swan plants to lay there eggs on so her she included a seed pod in her picture.

“These are the eggs. This is the spikey bit (seed pod)… now a butterfly and they have, look, very long antennae. This is going to be my baby caterpillar, now I’ll do a bigger caterpillar; this one has bigger antennae like that one (pointing to a large caterpillar on the plant). Now I have to do the cocoon.”

Alex has made it his responsibility to be a guardian to the tiny caterpillars, protecting them from the evil wasps. He brought in some swan plants from his home so that the caterpillars had enough food. He has spent every day for the last week studying the Monarch butterfly life cycle. Alex has drawn many pictures to explain his understanding and express his knowledge. He has also made 3D models of the Monarch in all of its life stages; egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and the butterfly.  

"Oh look here. I saved all of these guys and now they have got bigger. They are my buddies. I rescued all of them aye!...

I’m drawing caterpillars on the tree and a monarch butterfly landing. Do you want to see its wings? I am drawing it by looking at the picture. I’m going to do something. It hatches into a caterpillar. It’s an egg!

Those black things, the spots on the butterflies wings means it’s a boy. I saw that. That’s how I know. They have to eat lots to get bigger so they don’t get eaten by the wasps. They look like scary monsters to the caterpillars.

That was a caterpillar and now it’s turned into a chrysalis. It’s hanging and now it’s going to be disappearing into a chrysalis. It’s turning green. Look at this chrysalis. Now I have four and I am four. Now this one has hatched out of his egg and it grows and grows and turns green.

This is the Monarch butterflies life;
The butterfly lays an egg on a swan plant.
Then it flies away.
The egg hatches into a caterpillar. It’s tiny.
It gets bigger. It eats lots. It poo’s lots.
The big caterpillar turns into a chrysalis.
It stays in it for 5 weeks.
It turns into a butterfly. It flies away and goes to lay eggs. ”

The Monarch butterfly life cycle creates so much interest and curiosity amongst children. It allows them to explore scientific concepts around metamorphosis and change. This wonderful creature helps immerse children in one of the most intriguing and beautiful processes that the natural world has to offer.

“Children have a natural affinity towards nature. Dirt, water, plants, and small animals attract and hold children’s attention for hours, days, even a life time.” (Moore and Wong)

 Zair